The company’s move could be a warning for rivals including GSK, AstraZeneca and Incyte.

The latest first-in-human entrants include an anti-TROP2 ADC from Jiangsu Hansoh and a mystery bispecific from Johnson & Johnson.

But today’s deal with Jiangsu Hengrui doesn’t mean that the group is turning away from an earlier tie-up with Nerviano.

The dust has settled on a momentous ESMO conference, which saw biotech activity amid big pharma’s practice-changing data.

Early data on Hansoh’s HS-20089 were enough to tempt GSK, but Seagen isn't far behind.