Opdualag licensed for patients with advanced melanoma in UK

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved the advanced melanoma medicine Opdualag (nivolumab-relatlimab) for patients from the age of 12.

Developed and marketed by US pharma major Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), this is a cancer medicine used to treat advanced melanoma, a type of skin cancer that can spread to other areas of the body. The main risk factor for melanoma is exposure to ultraviolet light, which comes from the sun and is used in sunbeds. Around 17,000 cases of melanoma are diagnosed every year in the UK, although not all of those are advanced melanoma.

Opdualag has been authorized through Project Orbis, a global partnership between the MHRA, the Therapeutics Goods Administration in Australia, Health Canada, the Health Sciences Authority in Singapore, Swissmedic, Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária in Brazil and Israel’s Ministry of Health, coordinated by the US Food and Drug Administration. This program reviews and approves promising cancer drugs, helping patients to access treatments more quickly.