Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted a supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) that seeks to extend the use of Opdivo (nivolumab) to patients with mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) or microsatellite instability high (MSI-H) metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) after prior fluoropyrimidine-, oxaliplatin- and irinotecan-based chemotherapy. The FDA granted the application priority review, and theFDA action date is August 2, 2017.

“We look forward to working with the FDA towards the goal of providing a new treatment option for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer defined by dMMR or MSI-H biomarkers. These patients have a distinct unmet need, as they are less likely to benefit from conventional chemotherapy and have a shorter overall survival than patients with metastatic colorectal cancer without these biomarkers,” said Ian M. Waxman, M.D., development lead, Gastrointestinal Oncology, Bristol-Myers Squibb. “This milestone illustrates Bristol-Myers Squibb’s continued efforts to evaluate the potential of Immuno-Oncology in a broad range of cancers and represents an important advancement in our approach to translational medicine.”

The submission was based on data from the ongoing Phase 2 CheckMate -142 trial evaluating Opdivo in patients with dMMR or MSI-H metastatic CRC. The efficacy endpoints include investigator-assessed and blinded independent central review committee-assessed objective response rate (ORR) based on the Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (RECIST) version 1.1, duration of response, progression-free survival and overall survival. Data from this study were presented at the 2017 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in January.