The Swiss drug maker’s decision to give back rights to tislelizumab means BeiGene goes without the potentially $1.55bn in milestone payments the companies had agreed to in early 2021.

The Japanese drug maker gave multiple presentations on AstraZeneca-partnered Enhertu and other deruxtecan-based ADCs. Plus Gilead presented data on Trodelvy, Amgen showed early frontline data for Lumakras, and J&J’s EGFR-directed bispecific Rybrevant showed a 50% ORR in heavily pretreated patients.

BeiGene, Junshi, Henlius are studying their PD-1, TIGIT and BTLA-targeting assets in US trials for the relatively less crowded indication of small cell lung cancer.

Although Novartis/BeiGene’s tislelizumab and Coherus /Junshi’s toripalimab have not received a new Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) decision date for their biologics license applications in the US, the companies remain hopeful that potential approvals will be granted in the third quarter at the earliest.