Data on Opdivo unable to undo B-MS share damage

The investor gloom that hit Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) on Monday was not lifted by the US drugmaker’s presentation of data on the Opdivo (nivolumab) 3 mg/kg plus low-dose Yervoy (ipilimumab, 1mg/kg) combination in first-line advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with high tumor mutational burden (TMB).

So far as investors were concerned, this data, presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2018, was clearly less important than the results that Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK)  offered up in lung cancer on its anti-PD1 immunotherapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab), the principal rival to Opdivo among early immuno-oncology drugs.

Merck’s share price was up by 2% at $58.45 after three hours of trading, while that of B-MS sank by 8% to $53.72 in the same period as markets considered what the positive Keytruda data might mean for both companies.