The pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) today revealed positive results from a new study evaluating its lead cancer drug Opdivo.
The pharma company’s Phase 3 CheckMate-227 trial evaluated the effectiveness of Opdivo (nivolumab) plus a low dose of Yervoy (ipilimumab) as well as chemotherapy against chemotherapy alone in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer with PD-L1 expression of less than 1% across squamous and non-squamous tumors.
The results suggest that Opdivo in combination with chemotherapy extended progression-free survival versus chemotherapy alone in this subset of patients.
“Results show Opdivo plus chemotherapy improved progression-free survival versus chemotherapy in first-line lung cancer patients whose tumors do not express PD-L1,” said Hossein Borghaei, the study’s investigator and chief of thoracic medical oncology at Fox Chase Cancer center in Philadelphia.
The results from Part 1b of CheckMate 227 will be presented today at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in Chicago.
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CheckMate 227 is an open-label Phase 3 trial aimed at evaluating Opdivo versus platinum-doublet chemotherapy in patients with advanced non small cell lung cancer.
In pre-market trade, Bristol Myers Squibb shares were down about 1% at US$52.60.