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July 20 (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co said alate-stage trial of its drug, Opdivo, was stopped early afterthe immunotherapy was found to be effective in patients with themost common form of kidney cancer.
The U.S. drugmaker said on Monday the study, Checkmate-025,was stopped early after an independent data monitoring committeeconcluded that Opdivo provided a survival advantage over thecancer drug, everolimus, among patients with advanced ormetastatic renal cell carcinoma.
Expectations that the trial would be stopped early werehigh, Evercore ISI Mark Schoenebaum said, given theeffectiveness of Opdivo in mid-stage studies, the limitedbenefit of everolimus, and that renal cell cancer hashistorically responded well to immunologic therapies.
The trial was expected to be completed by February 2016,according to clinicaltrials.gov.
Renal cell carcinoma is the most common type of kidneycancer in adults, accounting for more than 100,000 deathsannually. Globally, the five-year survival rate for thosediagnosed with metastatic, or advanced kidney cancer, is 12.1percent, according to Bristol-Myers.
In April, a large trial testing Opdivo was stopped earlyafter the drug was found effective against the most common formof lung cancer.
Opdivo, already in use to treat advanced melanoma and formsof lung cancer, belongs to a highly promising new class ofmedicines called PD-1 inhibitors that block a mechanism tumorsuse to hide from the immune system.
The drug competes with Merck & Co's Keytruda.
AstraZeneca Plc, Pfizer Inc and otherdrugmakers are also developing PD-1 inhibitors, or similar drugsknown as PD-L1 inhibitors.
Separately, smaller drugmaker Exelixis Inc saidlate-stage data showed that its cancer drug, Cometriq, was moreeffective than everolimus in improving survival without thedisease progressing in patients with advanced kidney cancer.
Bristol's shares rose about 2 percent to $70.45 in earlytrading. (Reporting by Natalie Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by SrirajKalluvila)
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