Just in time for the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, Bristol Myers Squibb launched a campaign to highlight its progress in dual immuno-oncology (I-O) research and development in cancer.
The Wasn’t Supposed To See This campaign features patient stories as well as the small, everyday life moments that they thought they would never get to experience after a cancer diagnosis.
These moments — typically considered mundane and even frustrating to the average person — are more special for cancer patients who have survived long enough to experience them.
The campaign shows a variety of scenes, including a family dog ripping up pillows in the living room, a teenager next to a drum set, a woman tasting her homemade sauce as well as a parent walking in on their child drawing all over the walls.
The drugmaker reiterated that these regular occurrences wouldn’t have happened if oncology research and treatments hadn’t accelerated over the years.
“All of these are moments many people with melanoma, lung, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and other cancers may never have seen without lifesaving research,” BMS noted in a statement.
The rollout of the campaign coincided with ASCO and promotional images were incorporated throughout the Chicago O’Hare International to catch the eyes of oncologists and patients as they were passing through for the conference.
The campaign is meant to underscore BMS’ progress in the oncology space over the last several decades, specifically when it comes to dual I-O.
A decade ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved Opdivo (nivolumab), BMS’ dual I-O drug that treats metastatic or unresectable melanoma. It has since expanded its indications to include non-small cell lung cancer and kidney cancer.
“We recognized a little over a decade ago that single agents may only get us so far in confronting the biological complexities of solid tumors and delaying — or preventing — progression or recurrence,” noted Tania Small, SVP, head of medical affairs at BMS, in a recent blog post. “We recognized that more needed to be done and we formulated and tested a hypothesis around a double immunotherapeutic approach that became the backbone of what is today an industry-leading development program.”
Years ago, treatment options for advanced melanoma “offered little hope,” Small added, as only about one in four patients survived one year after diagnosis.
Now, around half of patients are living 6.5 years after diagnosis.
Small continued that patients have more treatment options than ever before and the potential for more time.
BMS also announced new data at the ASCO conference, including results from its Phase 3 KRYSTAL-12 trial in patients with locally advanced or metastatic KRASG12C-mutated non-small cell lung cancer.
That trial found that BMS’ therapy, Krazati or adagrasib, resulted in a clinically meaningful improvement in progress-free survival.
BMS also presented results from its Phase 3 CheckMate-9DW trial testing Opdivo with Yervoy in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, showing the drug reached its primary endpoint of overall survival.
