Stac, ASCO has a very stringent embargo rule, meaning that anything to be presented there must have no prior PR or publication so it will be maximum impact 'new news'.
My take is that NW was planning on giving an update in Dec, when MD Anderson came to NW recommending to do a big ASCO intro of the data. Linda I think did not immediately understand the embargo consequence, so messages from NW were a bit confusing until the ASCO news came out.
So if the submitted abstract is accepted, there will ne no Direct update until ASCO, which is approx. June 1. Paradoxically, if the abstract is not accepted for an ASCO talk, the embargo is removed and NW is then free to announce the data ahead of ASCO. From a max impact PR standpoint, this actually would garner more attention for NW, as their Direct data announcement would then stand alone; whereas at ASCO, there will be many big announcements every day from much larger companies with more marketing horsepower, and there will be a risk of NW being somewhat lost in the noise. An announcement ahead of time also ensures attendees come to the conference looking to go see NW, vs maybe / maybe not seeing the announcement when they are already there. This dynamic is why Apple stopped attending industry shows and did their own standalone events.
However, there is also a prestige and validation factor of submitting an ASCO abstract because if it is accepted, it shows that a review panel of experts deemed the data reliable and worthwhile. Net net I think they have made the right call, as IMO data that shows that Direct is working will be accepted for ASCO, so it is likely IMO we don't see Direct data until ASCO.
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