$150 million payment sweetens termination of tislelizumab deal

Sino-American biotech BeiGene (Nasdaq: BGNE) has been handed back rights to its investigational checkpoint inhibitor tislelizumab by New Jersey-based Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG).

In July 2017, BeiGene and Celgene announced a global collaboration, giving the latter rights to the anti–PD-1 monoclonal antibody in solid tumor cancers everywhere outside Asia, plus in Japan.

With Celgene the subject of a $74 billion acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), the candidate no longer has as much value for the oncology specialist. Bristol-Myers already owns a leading checkpoint blocker, Opdivo (nivolumab).