Bristol-Myers Squibb and Incyte agree immunotherapy alliance

Bristol-Myers Squibb and Incyte have announced a new clinical collaboration agreement that will assess the safety and efficacy of a new immunotherapy regimen.

The companies will conduct a phase I/II study assessing the benefits of a combination regimen of Bristol-Myers Squibb's investigational PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab and Incyte's oral indoleamine dioxygenase-1 inhibitor INCB24360.

Multiple tumour types will be explored in the trial, potentially including melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian cancer, colorectal cancer, squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Both are part of a new class of cancer treatments that are designed to harness the body's own immune system in fighting off the disease. It is hoped that combining the treatments will deliver an enhanced anti-tumour immune response.

Michael Giordano, senior vice-president for oncology and immunosciences development at Bristol-Myers Squibb, said the company "is committed to pursuing the full potential of its immuno-oncology portfolio through the study of promising approaches to combination regimens".

This comes after Bristol-Myers Squibb announced a new alliance with CytomX Therapeutics on the development of a number of new immuno-oncology therapies earlier this week.