Fuelled with a $500m Summit windfall Akeso advances its lead bispecific.

Other projects new to the clinic include Haisco’s USP1 inhibitor and and Avistone’s type II c-MET blocker.

Checkmate-9DW scores a topline win on overall survival, when failure seemed more likely.

Data on the group’s lead project, the PD-1 x CTLA-4 bispecific vudalimab, are far from emphatic.

Opdivo plus Yervoy scores a remarkable survival benefit in Checkmate-8HW, whose control arm presents some comparability difficulties.

Akeso’s cadonilimab hits in its first-line study, but there’s no US data and no US partner.

But efficacy still needs to go up, as several groups try to combine PD-1 and CTLA-4 using differing approaches.

Liver toxicity notwithstanding, volrustomig will start a phase 3 lung cancer study versus Keytruda imminently.