Ono Pharma to start marketing Opdivo for blood cancer in Japan

Mid-size Japanese drugmaker Ono Pharmaceuticals (TYO: 4528) is set start selling Opdivo (nivolumab), the cancer drug developed under license with US pharma major Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), as a blood cancer treatment covered by Japan's health insurance within the year, the firm’s president Gyo Sagara told The Nikkei on Monday.

Opdivo is now used for melanoma and lung cancer. Renal cell carcinoma could be added to the list as early as September. Ono aims to further expand the indications to Hodgkin's lymphoma and applied in March to have the treatment covered by insurance The Nikkei reported.

In its current approved indications in Japan, Opdivo generated sales of around $250 million for Ono in the last fiscal year to end March 2016. For Bristol-Myers, global sales of the drug in the second quarter of 2016 alone came in at $840 million.