The US Food and Drug Administration approved the expanded use of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo (nivolumab) to treat patients with advanced (metastatic) squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy. In 2014, the FDA approved Opdivo to treat patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma who no longer respond to other drugs.

Opdivo works by inhibiting the cellular pathway known as PD-1 protein on cells that blocks the body's immune system from attacking cancerous cells. Opdivo is intended for patients who have previously been treated with platinum-based chemotherapy.

Opdivo for squamous NSCLC was reviewed under the FDA's priority review program, which provides for an expedited review of drugs that treat serious conditions and, if approved, would provide significant improvement in safety or effectiveness in the treatment of a serious condition. Opdivo is being approved more than three months ahead of the prescription drug user fee goal date of June 22, 2015, the date when the agency was scheduled to complete its review of the application.

In 2014, Bristol-Myers Squibb received approval for Opdivo 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.

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. On July 23, 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 regiments, in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

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.

Source: FDA