Opdivo approved in Europe for squamous head and neck cancer

The European Commission has approved Opdivo (nivolumab) as monotherapy for the treatment of squamous cell cancer of the head and neck (SCCHN) in adults progressing on or after platinum-based therapy.

US pharma major Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (NYSE: BMY) Opdivo is the first and only Immuno-Oncology (I-O) treatment that demonstrated in a Phase III trial a significant improvement in overall survival (OS) for these patients. Opdivo is already raking in blockbuster sales, which came in at $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2017, a year-on-year rise of 60%.

“Adult patients with squamous cell cancer of the head and neck that progresses on or after platinum-based therapy are fighting a debilitating and hard-to-treat disease that is associated with a very poor prognosis,” said Kevin Harrington, professor in Biological Cancer Therapies at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and a consultant clinical oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London. “As an oncologist who helps patients deal with this terrible disease, I hope that nivolumab will now be made available as widely as possible, offering this group of patients a new treatment option that can potentially improve their overall survival," he added.