Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo (nivolumab) Receives Breakthrough Therapy Designation from U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma
PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation to Opdivo for the potential indication of advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The Breakthrough Therapy designation is an FDA program intended to expedite the development and review of medicines with early signals of potential clinical benefit in serious diseases to help ensure patients have access to new therapies as soon as possible.This designation is based on results of CheckMate -025, a Phase 3 study that evaluated the survival of patients with previously treated advanced or metastatic clear-cell RCC versus everolimus, a current standard of care for patients with previously treated kidney cancer. The trial was stopped early in July 2015 because an assessment conducted by the independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) concluded that the study met its primary endpoint of overall survival, demonstrating superior overall survival in patients receiving Opdivo compared to the control arm. Bristol-Myers Squibb will be presenting further data from this study at the upcoming 2015 European Cancer Congress (ECC), and looks forward to submitting these data to regulatory authorities this year.Michael Giordano, senior vice president, head of Development, Oncology commented, “Results from CheckMate -025 mark the third tumor in which Opdivo has shown an overall survival benefit in a Phase 3 trial. The Breakthrough Therapy Designation in advanced renal cell carcinoma is a clear signal of the need for additional treatment approaches for RCC and reflects part of our broad commitment to Immuno-Oncology research that may address many types of advanced cancers."According to the FDA, the criteria for Breakthrough Therapy Designation requires preliminary clinical evidence that demonstrates the medicine may have substantial improvement on at least one clinically significant endpoint over available therapy. This is the fourth Breakthrough Therapy Designation granted for Opdivo by the FDA, with previous indications including patients with Hodgkin lymphoma after failure of autologous stem cell transplant and brentuximab, previously treated advanced melanoma, and previously treated non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer.About Renal Cell CarcinomaRenal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common type of kidney cancer in adults, accounting for more than 100,000 deaths worldwide each year. Clear-cell RCC is the most prevalent type of RCC and constitutes 80 percent to 90 percent of all cases. RCC is approximately twice as common in men as it is in women, with the highest rates of the disease found in North America and Europe. Globally, the five-year survival rate for those diagnosed with metastatic, or advanced kidney cancer, is 12.1 percent.About OpdivoBristol-Myers Squibb has a broad, global development program to study Opdivo in multiple tumor types consisting of more than 50 trials – as monotherapy or in combination with other therapies – in which more than 8,000 patients have been enrolled worldwide.Opdivo is a programmed death-1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitor that has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a monotherapy in two cancer indications. Opdivo became the first PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor to receive regulatory approval anywhere in the world on July 4, 2014 when Ono Pharmaceutical Co. announced that it received manufacturing and marketing approval in Japan for the treatment of patients with unresectable melanoma. In the U.S., the FDA granted its first 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. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and durability of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in the confirmatory trials. On March 4, 2015, Opdivo received its second FDA approval for the treatment of patients with metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy. On July 20, the European Commission approved Nivolumab BMS for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer after prior chemotherapy.Wednesday, September 16, 2015Source: http://news.bms.com/
