Bob Duggan loaned his company Summit Therapeutics ~$500 million to allow the firm to purchase the rights to an investigational drug called Ivonescimab in the US, the UK, and other countries. The rights were purchased from a company called Akeso Inc. which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

Ivonescimab showed some potential in Phase II trials in China in treating Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC).

The rights to China are excluded from the deal. This disclosure is also made by Akeso:

Ivonescimab is an investigational therapy that is not approved by any regulatory authority. It is currently being investigated in Phase III clinical studies.|

Links to the websites we look at in the video:

Summit & Akeso Partnership for the drug Ivonescimab

Ivonescimab Press Release

Ivonescimab for small cell tumor lung cancer treatment 

Akeso Inc. is based in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) a/k/a Mainland China. As such, it is subject to the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) lead by Xi Jingping.

The chain of ownership of Akeso Inc. from top to bottom: 

The Charoen Pokphand Group Company, Ltd. a/k/a the CP Group is a Thai conglomerate based in Bangkok. The conglomerate owns >200 businesses in Mainland China. 2022 Revenues are reported as $82 billion.

The CP Group is Thailand’s largest private company and the largest privately held Royal Warrant holder of the Thai Royal Family.

The CP Group owns Sino Biopharmaceutical Limited a/k/a Sino Biopharm which is located in Mainland China.

Sino Biopharm owns Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. a/k/a CTTQ is a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Mainland China. It is one of the shareholders of CTTQ Akeso. CTTQ is located in Shanghai, China.

CTTQ-Akeso Biomed. Tech. Co., Ltd (正大天晴康方(上海)生物醫藥科 技有限公司), a limited liability company incorporated under the laws of the PRC on August 30, 2019. CTTQ owns part of CTTQ-Akeso.

Akeso Biopharma Co., Ltd.

Akeso, Inc. (康方生物科技(開曼)有限公司), is a limited liability incorporated in the Cayman Islands on January 30, 2019.

Does Bob Duggan believe in the potential of ivonescimab? Yes and no. He loaned his company Summit Therapeutics $500 million to purchase the rights to the drug.

Bob Duggan then had Summit Therapeutics offer 476 million shares of stock to the market in order to raise capital to pay Bob Duggan back his $500 million.

In our view, Bob Duggan wants to completely eliminate his financial risk by shifting it onto investors. Bob wants his $500 million back and plans to get it by selling stock. This allows Bob to have his cake and eat it too: He locks up the rights to an investigational therapy which, if it fails, the investors lose. If it goes big, Bob makes money from his shares in Summit Therapeutics.

Read the SEC Document: Repayment to Bob Duggan

Excerpt from the SEC Document (emphases ours):

PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS SUBJECT TO COMPLETION, DATED JANUARY 20, 2023

 PROSPECTUS

 SUMMIT THERAPEUTICS INC.

 Subscription Rights to Purchase Up to 476,190,476 Shares of Common Stock at the Initial Price

 Summit Therapeutics Inc. is distributing at no charge to the holders of our common stock, par value $0.01 per share, non-transferable subscription rights (each, a “Subscription Right”) to purchase up to 476,190,476 shares of common stock (the “Rights Offering”) at the Initial Price (as defined below) with an aggregate offering value of up to $500,000,000. The subscription price per share of common stock shall be equal to the lesser of (i) $1.05 (the “Initial Price”) and (ii) the volume weighted-average price of our common stock for the preceding five-day trading period through and including the Expiration Date (as defined below) (the “Alternate Price”), as provided herein. Each stockholder will receive one Subscription Right entitling the holder to purchase 2.152353 shares of common stock at the Initial Price (the “Basic Subscription Right”), for each share of our common stock owned at 4:00 p.m., Eastern Time, on [●] (the “Record Date”). To the extent that the Alternate Price is lower than the Initial Price, we will sell additional shares of common stock in the Rights Offering, provided that we will not issue any fractional shares of common stock. For a more detailed discussion, see “Rights Offering —Subscription Rights — Basic Subscription Rights” beginning on page 40. The Initial Price or Alternate Price, as applicable, is sometimes referred to herein as the “Subscription Price”. The Subscription Price may present a significant discount to the recent closing trading price of $4.23 on January 19, 2023. Following the closing of the Rights Offering, there is no assurance that the price will remain at the current trading price, and the price may decline to the Subscription Price, or to a price lower than the Subscription Price. For a more detailed discussion, see “Dilution” beginning on page 37. If the Rights Offering is not fully subscribed and you fully exercise your Basic Subscription Right, you may also exercise your Subscription Rights to purchase additional shares of common stock at the Subscription Price that were not subscribed for by other Subscription Rights holders under the Rights Offering (the “Over-Subscription Right”), subject to the availability and pro rata allocation of shares among persons exercising this Over-Subscription Right. However, we will not issue shares in excess of the total amount authorized by our Board of Directors. For a more detailed discussion, see “Rights Offering” beginning on page 40.

 The purpose of this Rights Offering is to raise equity capital in a cost-effective manner that provides all of our existing stockholders the opportunity to participate. The net proceeds will be used for one or more of the following purposes: (i) the repayment to Robert W. Duggan, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Board, and beneficial owner of approximately 78.1% of the Company’s common stock and Dr. Mahkam Zanganeh, the Company’s co-Chief Executive Officer, President, member of the Board and beneficial owner of approximately 6.0% of the Company’s common stock, of certain unsecured promissory notes totaling $420 million issued pursuant to the Note Purchase Agreement and (ii) general corporate purposes, which includes funding the Company’s activities to support clinical development and regulatory approval for ivonescimab (also referred to herein as SMT112) and pursue business development opportunities to expand or enhance our pipeline of drug candidates. For a more detailed discussion, see “Use of Proceeds” beginning on page 35.

On December 5, 2022, we entered into a Collaboration and License Agreement (the “License Agreement”) with Akeso, Inc. and its affiliates (“Akeso”) and certain ancillary transaction documents as set forth in the License Agreement. The License Agreement was subject to customary closing conditions, including applicable waiting periods under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (the “HSR Act”). Pursuant to the terms of the License Agreement, we are obligated to make an upfront payment of $500 million, $300 million of which is payable within the later of 15 days after execution of the License Agreement or upon the earliest date on which the parties have actual knowledge that all applicable waiting periods under the HSR Act and any comparable extension periods with respect to the transactions contemplated by the License Agreement have expired or been terminated (the “Antitrust Clearance Date”) and $200 million of which is payable upon the later of (i) 90 days after the execution of the License Agreement or (ii) the Antitrust Clearance Date. In connection with the first payment, Akeso may elect to receive up to 16 million shares of Company common stock in lieu of cash. Following the Antitrust Clearance Date, on January 17, 2023 the License Agreement closed and Akeso was issued 10 million shares of Company common stock and was paid $274.9 million dollars in cash. The $200 million remaining amount of the $500 million upfront payment is payable March 5, 2023. For a more detailed discussion, see “Prospectus Summary” beginning on page 18.

Bob Duggan in earlier days when he and Trish were married. They are shown here with Scientology leader David Miscavige who presented them with yet another IAS trophy for donating millions of dollars. According to Forbes Magazine, Bob Duggan has donated more than $360 million to the Church of Scientology in his lifetime.