The new drug is called Yervoy (generic name ipilimumab) and it is intended for the adjuvant treatment of patients with melanoma. Adjuvant refers to a pharmacological and/or immunological agent that modifies the effect of other agents.
Melanoma is a form of skin cancer which develops within skin pigment-containing cells (melanocytes.) the primary cause of the cancer is excessive exposure to sunlight (or ultraviolet light from tanning machines) for people with low levels of skin pigments.
The new drug is aimed for patients with pathologic involvement of regional lymph nodes and who have been subject to a lymphadenectomy. A lymphadenectomy is the surgical removal of one or more groups of lymph nodes. This type of condition affects about 5 percent of all new melanoma cases worldwide. It is an aggressive form of skin cancer.
Discussing the approval, Michael Giordano, who is senior vice president, head of development, oncology at Bristol-Myers Squibb, told Pharma File: “The science of Immuno-Oncology is rapidly advancing, and we are proud to be the first to demonstrate the potential of an immune checkpoint inhibitor in the adjuvant setting, an earlier stage of the disease, where patients urgently need new medicines.”
Giordano then added: “The approval of Yervoy for the treatment of adjuvant melanoma underscores our scientific leadership in Immuno-Oncology, with a commitment to further developing our I-O agents — Yervoy and Opdivo — across multiple tumour types and at many stages of disease.”
In other drug development news, the charitable arm of the pharmaceutical company Novartis — the Novartis Foundation — has begun the process of selecting patients for a new “Hypertension Improvement Project” in Ghana. This will be a two-year program which sets out to evaluate the impact of a new healthcare model for hypertension control. Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
