Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said a combination of two of its cancer medicines, Opdivo and Yervoy, was better than the current standard of treatment for patients with a type of kidney cancer.
The New York-based biopharmaceutical giant said a two-year follow up from a phase 3 trial known as CheckMate -214 showed that patients on the combination experienced significantly better improvements in their physical, emotional and functional well-being when compared to those who received Pfizer Inc.'s Sutent, or sunitinib.
The combination was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April as the initial treatment for intermediate- and poor-risk patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.
"The analysis of patient-reported outcomes in CheckMate -214 is particularly relevant for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma as it shows that the combination of Opdivo plus low-dose Yervoy not only provides therapeutic benefits over a current standard of care but it demonstrates improvements in patient health-related quality of life that were sustained over the two-year follow-up period," John O'Donnell, Bristol-Myers' vice president of worldwide health economics and outcomes research, said in a statement.
