Bristol-Myers cancer immunotherapy advances on two fronts

(Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's Opdivo, a new oncology drug that makes cancer cells more susceptible to the immune system, on Monday won European approval to treat a form of lung cancer and was also found to be beneficial in patients with advanced kidney cancer. Bristol-Myers shares rose 1.2 percent after the favorable separate announcements involving the drug, which is already approved in the United States to treat advanced squamous lung cancer and melanoma that has spread. The drug works by blocking receptors to PD-1, or programmed death-1, a protein cancer cells use to evade detection by the immune system. Clinical trials showed that patients with the squamous form of non small cell lung cancer taking Opdivo had almost twice the survival rate at one year as patients taking standard chemotherapy. Earlier on Monday, Bristol-Myers said a trial of Opdivo among patients with the most common form of kidney cancer was stopped after the drug was found to be effective. The study, Checkmate-025, was stopped after an independent data monitoring committee concluded that Opdivo provided a survival advantage over the standard treatment, everolimus, among patients with advanced kidney cancer.[ID:nL3N1003SK] Wall Street expects Opdivo, also known by its chemical name nivolumab, to generate annual sales of more than $7 billion by 2020. (Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Dan Grebler)