Bris­tol-My­ers shares sink af­ter an­oth­er set­back for its im­muno-on­col­o­gy fran­chise drugs

Once again un­der­min­ing con­fi­dence in its all-im­por­tant im­muno-on­col­o­gy pipeline, Bris­tol-My­ers Squibb con­ced­ed Tues­day evening that a com­bi­na­tion of Op­di­vo and Yer­voy failed to hit a key co-pri­ma­ry end­point in a Phase III study for front­line re­nal cell car­ci­no­ma.

Com­par­ing the com­bo against suni­tinib (Su­tent) in CHECK­MATE-214, re­searchers said that Op­di­vo/Yer­voy failed to sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­prove pro­gres­sion-free sur­vival for pa­tients. They did note, though, that the com­bo hit a co-pri­ma­ry end­point on the ob­jec­tive re­sponse rate, achiev­ing a 41.6% ORR ver­sus 26.5% for suni­tinib. In their words: “The me­di­an PFS was 11.56 months (95% CI 8.71 – 15.51) for the Op­di­vo and Yer­voy com­bi­na­tion ver­sus 8.38 months (95% CI 7.03-10.81) for suni­tinib.”

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