FDA approves Bristol Myers-Squibb's Opdivo in rare blood cancer

The US Food and Drug Adminstration has approved Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (NYSE: BMY) Opdivo (nivolumab) as a treatment for patients with a rare blood cancer, marking the first approval of a PD-1 inhibitor in a hematological malignancy.

Patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) who have relapsed or progressed after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (auto-HSCT) and post-transplantation brentuximab vedotin, who have exhausted other treatment options, will now have access to a new treatment.

It brings to eight the number of approvals for Opdivo across four different cancers in less than two years.