Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) reports that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a positive opinion recommending that Opdivo (nivolumab), a PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, be granted approval for use in both first-line and previously treated patients with advanced (unresectable or metastatic) melanoma. This is the first positive opinion given by the CHMP for a PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, and it will now be reviewed by the European Commission, which has the authority to approve medicines for the European Union (EU).

Bristol-Myers Squibb has a broad, global development program to study Opdivo in multiple tumor types consisting of more than 50 trials, as a monotherapy or in combination with other therapies , in which more than 7,000 patients have been enrolled worldwide.

Opdivo was first approved in Japan in July 2014 for treating unresectable melanoma. In the US, Opdivo is approved for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma and disease progression following Yervoy (ipilimumab) and, if BRAF V600 mutation positive, a BRAF inhibitor. On March 5, 2015, Opdivo received its second US Food and Drug Administration approval for the treatment of patients with metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer with progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy.

In 2011, through a collaboration agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical, Bristol-Myers Squibb expanded its territorial rights to develop and commercialize Opdivo globally except in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, where Ono had retained all rights to the compound at the time. In July 2014, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Ono Pharmaceutical further expanded the companies' strategic collaboration agreement to jointly develop and commercialize multiple immunotherapies as single agents and combination regimens in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Source: Bristol-Myers Squibb