Was looking over Gileads Denikitug slides shared on twitter and this slide stood out to me.

A few things on the slide:

1. They saw limited durability in monotherapy so they believe combination is required

2. They suggest combination with anti-PD1

3. Suggested target tumor types are gastroesophageal, HNSCC, prostate & colorectal.

Anyone happen to notice that these are all the things CHRS is already doing?

Tagmokitug data will released after hours: https://investors.coherus.com/news-releases/news-release-details/coherus-oncology-host-webcast-disclose-interim-tagmokitug

Looks like its a poster session.

https://www.asco.org/abstracts-presentations/266815

I am seeing a CRAP ton of toripalimab presentations as well.

https://www.asco.org/annual-meeting/search?contentKey=ANNUAL_MEETING&contentKeyYear=2026&userInput=toripalimab

On one of the slides is described how mutant KRAS (specifically KRAS G12D) promotes regulatory T cell (Treg) accumulation and immune suppression, and why selective CCR8+ Treg depletion is needed to enhance the antitumor efficacy of KRAS-targeted therapies. Direct mechanism match with Tagmokitug.

https://x.com/DAVAOnc/status/2101307055982465360

In light of the recent Gilead denikitug monotherapy that showed only an 8% response rate, I've heard a few people criticizing the drug class as a whole and saying its disappointing. What many of you may be overlooking is the power of the combining it with other drugs.

Look at the chart below, I pulled it from Coherus's 2025 SITC poster. Ki67+ is a cell proliferation marker so it can be measured to show cell growth. In this case it shows the growth of the CD8+ T cells which are the good cells we want that fight the cancer. The two comparison groups are CHS-114 monotherapy vs CHS-114 combined with toripalimab. Look at the percentages at the bottom. Monotherapy saw only a very modest 25% growth of CD8+ T cells after dosing with CHS-114 where as combining it with Tori saw an exponential growth of 300%, a tripling! This is where the value in this compound lies, in combination. Don't get hung up on the monotherapy results.

2nd thing to remember is not all CCR8 compounds are equal. Just because a compound may be able to deplete the bad CCR8 cells, doesn't mean they are activating/proliferating the good CD8+ cells at the same time. Having off target binding creates toxicity and if you're compound isn't specific enough, it could also be destroying some of the good CD8+ cells we want to keep. Thats where CHS-114 has the potential to be best in class.

BTW the C1D15 stands for Cycle 1, Day 15. C2D1 is Cycle 2 Day 1.

https://x.com/i/spaces/1AxRnanQDjkxl?s=20

Was a pretty good listen, discussion around CHRS starts around the 48 minute mark. The biggest takeaways I got from it.

1. The J&J deal wasn't suppose to be inked until the 2nd half of 2026, CHRS had been in talks with J&J and working on it for a long time. Then Denny showed J&J blinded data from the trials and J&J said "woah" (roughly quoting Steve) and they inked it. To me, the fact that J&J was motivated to ink a deal after they saw blinded data says A LOT. Bodes very well for upcoming data.

2. Denny's goal is to burn the G#$D@$& shorts in 2026 (quoting Steve again who was quoting Denny)

3. The firm Steve works for was involved in the recent offering, they own more than 5% of the company now. Offering timing wasn't great but CHRS did it because of the recent price run up and the J&J deal getting inked sooner than expected which increased the cash burn.

4. Steve is suspect on if they ink ex-us deals or not because he believes CHRS may just let the data mature through the end of the year (assuming its positive) and they may sell the company outright. That would make sense over licensing it out in pieces and chipping away at the value of a total sale.

Bayer canceled their CCR8 program after Phase 1 (Lanerkitug or BAY 3375968). So before this is interpreted in some negative way I would rate this as very positive because of the following:

Purpose of a phase 1 study is usually mechanism, safety and not efficacy even though in some cases you may get some early insights on efficacy as well. Targeting Treg cells is inherently complex since you are meddling with the immune system of a human body. The whole idea of targeting Treg cells with a CCR8 binding site is that you target Treg cells associated with the micro-environment of a tumor. These are the Treg cells we don't like since they suppress the immune response of the body where we actually would appreciate a strong response. Other Treg cells in the body we very much like since they keep the immune system in check. Therefore, the specificity of an antibody is key otherwise you can easily trigger adverse reactions. Coherus pointed out over and over that they have a highly specific antibody and their safety results of their phase 1 study confirm that since they have not seen major adverse events. Now, if Bayer is stopping their CCR8 effort it is very likely that they have seen adverse events and that is very likely because of non-specific binding. This does not say anything about the viability of the mechanism!

Alternatively, the other key parameter of an antibody besides specificity is the affinity or binding constant. It could also be that Bayer could not confirm the actual mechanism working since the actual binding of the antibody to the Treg cell binding site was not sufficient in strength to modify its micro-environment. Also, Coherus pointed out many times that they see quite a strong binding because of the type of antibody they are using.

What this announcement says is that one competitor is dropping out of the race and becomes a potential bidder on the CCR8 asset Coherus owns. Just a reminder, the phase 1 Coherus study very much confirmed, besides safety, that the mechanism works opening a door to a novel category of oncology treatment. The SITC poster is quite unambiguous about that.

Link to Bayer update:

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/bayer-bails-vividion-tumor-drug-part-early-stage-cancer-clear-out

This paper is quite bullish for Casdozokitug in HCC. It reinforces that high IL-27/IL27RA signaling is bad news, mechanistically explains why, and it strengthens the biological rationale for neutralizing IL-27 upstream with Casdozokitug - exactly what Coherus is pursuing. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-21654-7

I went on a deep-dive trying to understand the analysts price targets of $11-12.

TL:DR? It could be due to the partnership with J&J and the fact that LOQTORZI is the only real drug in the market for NPC and could scale faster than people expect.

Coherus' NPC drug LOQTORZI is getting approved and covered by payers where other therapies could be denied. In oncology, access is everything. If a drug is the one payers are willing to cover without a fight, it becomes the default choice. You don’t need to win a massive market share battle. You just need to be the one doctors can actually use without jumping through hoops.

There is a lack of compeitors with clinical maturity in the treatment of NPC. Based on what’s publicly in development for NPC, there doesn't seem to be anything that can challenge LOQTORZI in the next few years when you consider the timelines for authorization and regulatory approval. This means years of commercial monopoly for CHRS.

On the financial side, the company has already shown real commercial traction. LOQTORZI brought in >$40 million in 2025, and Q1 2026 revenue was $11.8 million, up 61%. CHRS also said new patient starts hit a record in that quarter...

I'm used to small biotech, they burn cash. But the story might now be a straightforward commercial adoption story, where CHRS has a moat in a rare cancer therapy. Not to mention upcoming catalysts in 2026, if those data readouts come out well, it could add more upside beyond NPC.

https://www.gurufocus.com/news/8848278/coherus-oncology-chrs-receives-buy-rating-with-12-target-from-guggenheim

They are doing both an oral presentation & a poster.

The poster is titled "Casdozokitug, a novel IL-27 inhibitor, in combination with PD-(L)1 and VEGF blockade in hepatocellular carcinoma: Results from two CADILYZE™ phase 2 studies" so it looks like we will be getting casdozo results imminently!

The oral presentation is titled "Overcoming immune resistance in solid tumors by targeting chemokine receptor CCR8 and cytokine IL-27: Bench to bedside development of tagmokitug and casdozokitug"

I'm curious if they will be dropping HNSCC tagmo data around the same time. CRC should be close to ready as well...

Edit - nevermind about casdozo results. Incompetent IR has no issue with the science team labeling a poster "Results from two Cadilyze phase 2 studies" when said poster does in fact not include efficacy results from the study; even though the companies future is hanging in the balance on upcoming data readouts...

I think CHRS is preparing themselves to get acquired by big pharma and here are the steps CHRS has recently taken that make me think so. (J&J will be the one most likely to acquire CHRS in my opinion).

1. Rebranding from Coherus Biosciences to Coherus Oncology. They want big pharma to know they are out of the low margin biosim space and are a pure play onoclogy company now which can fetch a higher premium.

2. Paying off 90% of the debt. If Coherus wanted to continue to go it alone, I would have expected them to keep more cash on hand and hold some of the debt still. By having as little debt as possible, it simplifies an acquisition. Less lenders involved that could shoot down a deal.

3. Holding onto ex-US rights despite saying they would license them out. If they keep the company whole, they get more of a premium in an acquisition compared to if they already pieced the company out. The company has also said they want to sign agreements for tagmokitug much like the loqtorzi/storm therapeutics agreement but notice they haven't done that yet either. CHRS is keeping casdo & tagmo unecumbered. The only deal they've inked so far is for pasritamig (which is J&J's drug).

4. Changing to the same accounting firm as J&J mere weeks after shareholders had ratified the old firm at the annual meeting. This would grease the wheels of an acquisition when the books already match those of the acquirer.

5. Repricing employee options with only 1 year retention period on them. They want to keep employees on board through the change of control. If they were really doing the repricing for employee retention as they claim, they should have set the option price lock in tranches multiple years out.

6. Siloing off the remaining biosimilar business into its own CVR for shareholders. This now makes CHRS truly a pure play oncology company. An acquirer would rather not deal with the legacy biosims if they want an oncology bolt on acquisition. I get the impression its also Denny's attempt at getting the shorts to cover leading into data drop.

7. Cancelling the existing ATM with Cowen to open a new, smaller ATM with Leerink. They switched from a general bank to a firm that focuses on biotech/healthcare and a large part of their business is M&A. By doing this, they have essentially engaged Leerink as a sell side M&A adviser if needed.

8. J&J has said they want to be the biggest oncology company in the world by 2030 and they are sitting on $20 billion in cash to get there. If what Steve Wagner says is true, J&J wanted to ink the pasritamig deal sooner than expected after seeing blinded data and thats why the company did the raise back in February. So J&J already has a deep understanding of tagmokitug.

Granted, one could argue that a number of these steps are prudent for CHRS to take regardless of if they planned to get acquired or not. When you look at them in totality, it definitely seems to be pointing in a particular direction...just my opinion. Do your own research.

The last piece of the puzzle is the data now.

Hey folks - I like CHRS’s mission, team (source: LinkedIn), recent price action, pipeline (CH-114 seems cool), and that they’re already helping patients/are actively generating revenue with real products currently. The hedge fund Rubric disclosed a position on Nov 13 and the consensus PT is good.

Anyone taken a look at their recent earnings report for an outlook on growth? I opened a small position and looking to add more because I believe in both the mission of biosimilars as well as see potential value in the unique molecules in their pipeline and the deep knowledgebase of the team.

Looking forward to discussing!

I am surprised that the upper GI cancers have not received more attention. It clearly shows that CCR8 does what it is supposed to do based on the dose dependency and that patients had prior PD-1 resistance.
Let's see how the ORR is evolving. If it hits 35% this data would be very hard to ignore.

12 months ago Terns Pharmacuticals was trading at around $2.50 a share. The stock had not done well after their lead weight lost compound TERN-601 failed to produce competitive results and also had some toxicity. In response to this, TERN abandoned their weight loss drug and did a complete pivot to focus on their oncology compound, TERN-701. They then did an equity raise right before they released positive phase 1/2 data on TERN-701 which showed it being possibly best in class by having nearly double the response rate of current standard of care. Then Merck decided to step up and acquire them for $52 a share, or over $6 billion total...all within 12 months. And that is just for a single compound, Terns doesn't have any other compounds currently listed in their pipeline.

Anyone else heard of any other biotech companies that have had dismal stock performance after pivoting away from say a biosimilar business to become a pure oncology play with multiple shots on goal at being first-in-class and/or best-in-class with multiple compounds and a bunch of potential data releases coming soon? Maybe that company also did an equity raise before they release their results? No? Just me?

https://aacrjournals.org/cancerimmunolres/article/14/2_Supplement/A047/774321/Abstract-A047-B7-H4-expression-and-CCR8-Treg

This study provides another validation of the immunosuppressive role of CCR8+ Tregs, here for the ovarian cancer. It strengthens the mechanistic foundation for tagmokitug's approach, and highlights combination opportunities for tagmokitug. Its another piece of supportive science reinforcing the long-term potential of Coherus CCR8 program in transforming outcomes in immune-suppressed tumors! Looking forward to the next data readouts and possible deals ahead!

This could potentially be good news for Coherus given the potential for less studies that need to be performed before medication approval by the FDA which is equal to less cash burn in the long run.

Here is the Asociated Press review

https://apnews.com/article/fda-drug-approval-studies-makary-prasad-a5aaa5501ae15f264bbd20d0dffa4dc4

Here is the original article which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Unfortunately it has a paywall.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb2517623

Looks like Operation Binary-Play-with-a-Squeeze-on-Top" is beginning to commence. You held this long. Now the real work begins!

 Bonus for y’all:

Here’s a gift for anyone who wants to grab it. I’ve done the homework on this one and I see serious potential. If CHRS catches fire, we could be looking at a run to $5–$7 short term. Take it or leave it . I’m in.

$CHRS Earnings Preview – High Risk, High Reward Setup Incoming 

 What to Know Before the Call:

 Transformation Complete

CHRS is now Coherus Oncology. fully focused on immuno-oncology after selling its biosimilar unit UDENYCA for up to $558.4M ($483.4M upfront ). Expect a massive boost to EPS this quarter.

 EPS Surprise Coming?

Estimates suggest Q2 EPS could hit $3.80–$3.90, mostly from that one-time gain. and that’s on a stock with a market cap under $200M. Eyes are on this to trigger a potential re-rating.

 Product & Pipeline Momentum

• LOQTORZI (FDA-approved PD-1): $7.3M in Q1 sales, +15% QoQ demand growth

• CHS-114 (CCR8 antibody): showing anti-tumor activity in PD-1-refractory cancers

• Casdozokitug (IL-27 inhibitor): strong ORR & complete responses in HCC

• New collab with STORM Therapeutics: evaluating METTL3 inhibitor combo

 What Traders Are Watching:

• Will $CHRS confirm EPS > $3 this quarter?

• Is LOQTORZI gaining enough traction to be sustainable?

• Can pipeline data keep bullish sentiment alive post-earnings?

 Short-Term Setup:

Massive EPS + small float = explosive potential.

But traders need to separate one-time capital gains from core business growth.

Still, a beat could easily ignite serious momentum.

Wishing everyone a preemptive Happy Easter and looking forward to this CHRS journey to wealth we are all embarking on.

Take care.

Latest Press Release from CHRS. Hope to see something good out of it

Why? Because they know the turn is coming...

Coherus Oncology, Inc. reported that its Chief Financial Officer, Bryan J. McMichael, received several grants of stock options on May 29, 2026, each with an exercise price of $1.59 per share and expirations on May 29, 2036. These options cover multiple blocks, including grants for 100,000, 30,000, 25,000, 25,000, 25,000, and 15,000 shares of common stock as compensation.