Bristol-Myers Squibb: EC Approves Opdivo For Adjuvant Treatment Of Melanoma

(RTTNews) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) said that the European Commission or EC has approved Opdivo, or nivolumab, for the adjuvant treatment of adult patients with melanoma with involvement of lymph nodes or metastatic disease who have undergone complete resection. This indication is for both BRAF mutant and wild-type melanoma patients.

With this decision, Opdivo becomes the first and only PD-1 therapy to receive an EC approval in the adjuvant setting and has gained its eighth indication across six distinct tumor types in the European Union.

"Stage III and IV melanoma patients are at high risk for disease recurrence after surgical removal and, therefore, in need of effective interventions to prevent recurrence. This is an important new treatment option, as the data support the benefit of nivolumab across a broad range of patients to address concerns around recurrence post-surgery," said James Larkin, Consultant Medical Oncologist of The Royal Marsden.

The EU approval is based on results from the ongoing Phase 3 randomized double-blind CheckMate -238 trial, which studied Opdivo 3 mg/kg versus Yervoy 10 mg/kg in patients who have undergone complete resection of stage IIIB/C or stage IV melanoma according to the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual 7th edition.

The 18-month recurrence-free survival or RFS was 66.4 percent for Opdivo, compared to 52.7 percent for Yervoy. Meanwhile, Opdivo reduced the risk of disease recurrence by 35 percent versus Yervoy.