Bristol-Myers Wins Early Approval Of Opdivo to Treat Lung Cancer

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. won expanded U.S. approval March 4 for its drug Opdivo (nivolumab) to treat lung cancer, more than three months ahead of schedule and just weeks after final clinical trial results became available.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Opdivo for patients with advanced squamous non-small-cell lung cancer whose disease progressed during or after trying chemotherapy, the agency said in a statement.

Opdivo was first approved in December to treat advanced melanoma. The medicine is part of a class of drugs called immunotherapies that use patients’ own systems to fight cancer.

Opdivo was tested in 135 patients who ...