Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo accepted for UK early access scheme

Bristol-Myers Squibb's new cancer drug Opdivo is to be made available in the UK through the Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS).

The Medicines Healthcare Products and Regulatory Agency has given the green light for the drug to be included in the EAMS, a programme that allows NHS patients to receive treatment with experimental therapies that have not yet received regulatory approval.

Opdivo will be made available as a monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma after prior therapy. It functions by modifying how the immune system reacts to tumours, bolstering the natural destruction of kidney cancer cells.

Data from a phase III clinical trial showed that Opdivo demonstrated a significant median overall survival benefit of 5.4 months compared to standard therapy in patients who had received prior treatment.

Nick Turkentine, chief executive officer of Kidney Cancer UK, said: "This is the news patients with advanced kidney cancer have been waiting to hear … Hopefully, this new class of cancer drug will lead to more developments in the battle against cancer."

This comes after the firm brought a clinical trial of Opdivo in head and neck cancer to an early end last month based on the drug's positive performance in the study.