'We were wrong': Af­ter ush­er­ing Mer­ck KGaA in­to PD-(L)1 fren­zy, on­col­o­gy chief jumps on mis­sion to 'tur­bocharge' T cells

Zhen Su’s love for T cells — which he com­pares to his high school sweet­heart — be­gan long be­fore he took over the on­col­o­gy de­vel­op­ment group at Mer­ck KGaA.

But it was at the Ger­man phar­ma gi­ant that he over­saw the de­vel­op­ment of Baven­cio, its can­di­date in the heat­ed PD-(L)1 race that pret­ty much de­fined his six-year tenure. That front row seat gave Su a close-up view of check­point in­hibitors and its lim­i­ta­tions: Some of them work too slow­ly; when they do, they on­ly help a third of all pa­tients at most; and not all have proven durable.

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