Tri-funded study starts testing Opdivo and Cabometyx combinations

Reflecting the nature of current oncology research, three companies are putting their dollars and euros into a new study involving three big-name cancer drugs combining immune checkpoint inhibitors and tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

The Phase III study, CheckMate 9ER, will investigate Opdivo (nivolumab), the much-hyped immuno-oncology drug from US pharma major Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), in combination with Cabometyx (cabozantinib) tablets, a small molecule inhibitor of receptor tyrosine kinases, versus sunitinib in patients with previously untreated, advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Those two drugs will also be studied in the same patient group in a further combination with B-MS' Yervoy (ipilimumab) as part of the same trial, the goal of which is progression-free survival. The study is part of a wider program looking at these combined treatments in different tumor types.