Bristol Myers Squibb presented the positive Phase III results on its already approved Opdivo-Yervoy combo at ESMO over the weekend, while separately announcing that it was returning Immatics’ bispecific T cell engager.
After 10 years, 43% of patients who took Bristol Myers Squibb’s Opdivo and Yervoy combo for melanoma were alive, according to new long term Phase III overall survival results. According to the pharma, this population not long ago faced a grim prognosis, with only about 25% of patients surviving one year after diagnosis.
The long-term data for Opdio and Yervoy was revealed at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Barcelona on Sunday and also published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
BMS reported that with a follow up of 10 years, the median overall survival rate in the late-stage trial was 71.9 months with the combo treatment, which was approved for metastatic melanoma in October 2015. This is the longest reported median overall survival in a Phase III advanced melanoma trial, the company said in a press release.
“Just over a decade ago, an advanced melanoma diagnosis meant that you likely only had months to live. The dual immunotherapy combination of Opdivo plus Yervoy has radically changed this outlook for many of these patients,” said Dana Walker, vice president, global program lead, melanoma and gastrointestinal and genitourinary cancers, for Bristol Myers Squibb, in a statement. For patients receiving Opdivo alone, the median overall survival rate was 36.9 months and for Yervoy it was 19.9 months.
BMS also said that among all patients in the trial, 64% who received the combination, 50% of those who got just Opdivo and 33% with just Yervoy did not require any subsequent systemic therapy at 10 years.
Elsewhere in its cancer portfolio, BMS is cutting a collaboration with Immatics that involved the bispecific T cell engager IMA401. The deal was originally signed in December 2021 for $150 million upfront, plus $770 in milestones.
As of December 12, development and commercialization efforts will go back to Immatics, according to the biotech’s Monday press release. The biotech will not have to refund any of the $150 million that was paid out already under the deal.
BMS had been conducting a Phase I study for IMA401. Immatics expects to continue advancing the trial with the next data milestone expected in 2025.
Read about other broken deals this year.
