Summit Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SMMT) Q4 2022 Results Conference Call March 9, 2023 9:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Dave Gancarz - SVP, Corporate Strategy and Stakeholder Relations
Dr. Maky Zanganeh - Co-CEO and President
Bob Duggan - Chairman and CEO
Ankur Dhingra - CFO
Conference Call Participants
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Brent, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Summit Fourth Quarter and Year-end 2022 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]
It is now my pleasure to turn today's call over to Mr. Dave Gancarz, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Stakeholder Relations. Sir, please go ahead.
Dave Gancarz
Good morning and thank you for joining us. Our press release was issued earlier this morning and is available on the homepage of our website. Today's call is being simultaneously webcast, and an archived replay will also be available later today on our website, www.smmttx.com. On the call with me today is Bob Duggan, our Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer; Dr. Maky Zanganeh, our Co-CEO and President; and Ankur Dhingra, our Chief Financial Officer.
Before we get started, I would like to note that some statements made by our management team and some responses to questions that we make today may be considered forward-looking statements based on our current expectations. Summit cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Please refer to our SEC filings for information about these risks and uncertainties. Summit undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Following comments from Bob and Ankur, we will take questions from analysts and others who maybe have them.
With that, I will turn the call over to Bob.
Bob Duggan
Thank you, Dave. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I will provide an overview and perspective on our company overall, and then Ankur will provide some updates regarding our financial position and outlook. First, I'm incredibly enthusiastic about the opportunity we have created at Team Summit. Our mission is something that is very important to us and something that I and all of us at Team Summit accept as our obligation to all of our stakeholders.
By taking full responsibility for the development of ivonescimab, we intend to make a significant difference by improving the quality and potential duration of patients' lives who may benefit from this innovative therapy, all the while intending to create world-class stakeholder return. I'd like to give some color as to where we are currently as a company. In December, we announced our partnership with Akeso to in-license their innovative bispecific antibody, ivonescimab. Akeso is a company based in China, is a pioneer in discovering and developing innovative antibodies and bispecific antibodies. Akeso is led by Dr. Michelle Xia, who founded the company in 2012 and is Akeso's Chairwoman and CEO. She has exceptional experience in leadership across scientific discovery, R&D, building and scaling manufacturing and overall leadership through her experience at companies in the U.S., including Celera Genomics, Bayer, Crown Biosciences. At Crown, she served in a leadership role in a joint venture with Pfizer. Dr. Xia has about 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and academic research in the U.S. and the U.K. in addition to her deep experience in China also leading Akeso. As a company, Akeso has a rich and diversified antibody drug pipeline with over 30 internally discovered drug candidates in various stages of development, including 6 bispecific antibodies. Akeso has taken part in over 80 clinical trials for 17 drug candidates, including 44 pivotal trials. Akeso has 2 drugs approved for oncology indications in China: a PD-1 inhibitor and a novel PD-1 CTLA-4 bispecific antibody called cadonilimab.