BMS Cancer Treatment Approved for UK Early Access Scheme

Bristol Myers-Squibb's (BMS) investigational medicine, Opdivo (nivolumab), has been approved by UK's Medicines Healthcare Products and Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for UK patients with one form of blood cancer through the Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS), ahead of its European licence.   Through the EAMS and funded by BMS, nivolumab will be available as monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) after autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) and treatment with brentuximab vedotin.   BMS reports that the EAMS decision "is based on the strength of the pivotal Phase II data published in The Lancet Oncology, which showed that the number of patients treated with nivolumab with considerable tumour reduction (objective response rate [ORR]) was 66.3%".