MHRA adds Bristol-Myers Squibb's cancer drug to early access scheme

US pharma company Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) on Thursday said Medicines Healthcare Products and Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has granted UK lung cancer patients access to treatment with potentially life-extending  medicine nivolumab, through the Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS), prior to the pending marketing authorization decision in the UK.

Through EAMS, nivolumab as monotherapy is indicated for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after prior chemotherapy in adult patients whose tumours express programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1), the company said in a statement.

The drug is approved by the European Commission and the US Food and Drug Administration under the trade name Opdivo, and generated sales of $475 million for Bristol-Myers in 2015.