Bristol-Myers Squibb and Nektar Therapeutics to assess combination cancer therapy

Bristol-Myers Squibb has announced a new partnership with Nektar Therapeutics that aims to evaluate a potentially promising new combination cancer therapy.

The collaboration will assess a combination of Bristol-Myers Squibb's Opdivo with Nektar’s investigational medicine NKTR-214 as a potential treatment regimen in five tumour types and seven potential indications.

Opdivo works by overcoming immune suppression, while NKTR-214 is an immunostimulatory therapy designed to expand specific cancer-fighting T cells and natural killer cells directly in the tumour micro-environment.

Phase I and II trials will now be organised to evaluate the potential of this treatment approach to provide improved and sustained efficacy and tolerability above the current standard of care in melanoma, kidney, colorectal, bladder and non-small cell lung cancer patients.

Dr Fouad Namouni, head of oncology at Bristol-Myers Squibb, said: "We believe that a combination regimen which utilises two different and complementary mechanisms designed to harness the body's own immune system to fight cancer has the potential to provide new treatment options for patients."

Opdivo was the first PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor to receive regulatory approval anywhere in the world and has now been approved in 54 countries.

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