Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Taris Biomedical, a Lexington, Massachusetts-headquartered clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, have entered into a clinical trial collaboration to evaluate the combination of Taris’ investigational product, TAR-200 (GemRIS), in combination with BMS’ programmed death-1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitor, Opdivo (nivolumab), an anti-cancer drug.

The Phase 1b trial will evaluate the combination in patients with muscle invasive bladder cancer who are scheduled for radical cystectomy. In conjunction with this collaboration, BMS also made an equity investment in Taris.

Opdivo is a blockbuster anti-cancer drug for BMS with 2016 sales of $3.77 billion. In the US, Opdivo is indicated for treating BRAF V600 mutation-positive unresectable or metastatic melanoma and BRAF V600 wild-type unresectable or metastatic melanoma as a single agent; unresectable or metastatic melanoma in combination with Yervoy (ipilimumab); metastatic non-small cell lung cancer; advanced renal cell carcinoma; classical Hodgkin lymphoma; recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck; and locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma; microsatellite instability high or mismatch repair deficient metastatic colorectal cancer; and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Source: Bristol-Myers Squibb