First early access scheme for breakthrough immunotherapy Opdivo in blood cancer

The UK’s Medicines Healthcare Products and Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has granted UK patients with one form of blood cancer access to the investigational medicine, nivolumab (trade name Opdivo), through the Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS), ahead of its European licence, the drug’s maker Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) announced today.

Through the EAMS and funded by Bristol-Myers, 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.

“Today’s decision will be very welcome news for clinicians and patients in the UK because it means that patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma will have early access to nivolumab, a treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to fight the cancer.” said Dr Graham Collins, Consultant Hematologist, Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust. “For patients whose disease has progressed after initial therapy, treatment options have previously been limited. From today, these sick and often young patients will potentially be able to benefit from this new and effective medicine which we hope will provide longer survival in these patients.”