Princeton: Bristol Myers Squibb has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for Opdivo (nivolumab) in combination with cisplatin-based chemotherapy as a first-line treatment for adult patients with unresectable or metastatic urothelial carcinoma, based on results from the Phase 3 CheckMate -901 trial. The FDA granted the application Priority Review status and assigned a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) goal date of April 5, 2024.

“The FDA’s acceptance of our application for Opdivo in combination with cisplatin-based chemotherapy represents important progress toward addressing the unmet need for options that may offer durable responses and improved survival for patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma. There remains a clear need for efficacious first-line treatment options that may potentially help improve outcomes for patients with this hard-to-treat disease,” said Dana Walker, M.D., M.S.C.E., vice president, global program lead, gastrointestinal and genitourinary cancers, Bristol Myers Squibb. “We look forward to working with the FDA throughout the review of this application and hope to bring the first immunotherapy-chemotherapy combination to these patients in the U.S. We want to offer a special thanks to the patients and investigators involved in the CheckMate -901 clinical trial.”
The filing was based on the results from the Phase 3 CheckMate -901 study, in which the combination showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful survival benefit over standard-of-care gemcitabine plus cisplatin in the treatment of this patient population. Opdivo in combination with cisplatin-based chemotherapy followed by Opdivo monotherapy demonstrated statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in the primary efficacy endpoints of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) as assessed by Blinded Independent Central Review (BICR). The OS and PFS data from CheckMate -901 were presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2023. The safety profile was tolerable and consistent with the known safety profiles of the individual components of the regimen. No new safety concerns have been identified.
Opdivo and Opdivo-based combinations have shown significant improvements in OS in Phase 3 clinical trials across multiple tumors, including metastatic urothelial carcinoma, advanced renal cell carcinoma, non-small cell lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, metastatic melanoma and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
Read also: USFDA nod to Bristol Myers Squibb Augtyro for lung cancer