Bris­tol-My­ers with­draws Op­di­vo/Yer­voy lung can­cer EU ap­pli­ca­tion — but oth­ers are in­com­ing

Ear­ly in 2019, Bris­tol-My­ers Squibb re­scind­ed an FDA ap­pli­ca­tion to mar­ket its check­point in­hibitor Op­di­vo in com­bi­na­tion with its CT­LA-4 ther­a­py Yer­voy for front­line use in pa­tients with the most com­mon form of lung can­cer. One year lat­er — the com­pa­ny is tak­ing the same step with the Eu­ro­pean reg­u­la­tor.

De­spite a head start, when Bris­tol-My­ers’ and its pi­o­neer­ing check­point in­hibitor Op­di­vo suf­fered a key lung can­cer set­back in 2016 — they found them­selves rel­e­gat­ed to the back­seat as Mer­ck’s Keytru­da seized the wheel on the road to im­munother­a­py star­dom. The drug­mak­er has since suf­fered a se­ries of blows in its quest to take a big slice of the lu­cra­tive mar­ket, pep­pered with some suc­cess­es.

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