Nektar Therapeutics and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced that based on results from pre-planned analyses of two late-stage clinical studies of bempegaldesleukin (BEMPEG) in combination with Opdivo (nivolumab) in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and bladder cancer, the companies have jointly decided to end the global clinical development program for bempegaldesleukin in combination with Opdivo. These studies and all other ongoing studies in the program will be discontinued. In the Phase 3 PIVOT-09 study in patients with previously untreated advanced or metastatic RCC, Nektar and Bristol Myers Squibb were informed by an independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) that a final analysis of objective response rate (ORR) as assessed by Blinded Independent Central Review (BICR) showed that bempegaldesleukin in combination with Opdivo did not meet the prespecified boundary for statistical significance in comparison to the tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) control arm in the International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC) intermediate/poor-risk or all-risk populations.

An interim analysis of overall survival (OS) also did not meet the prespecified boundary for statistical significance in either of these populations. Given there was no clinical benefit in the doublet therapy arm compared to the TKI arm, the companies have decided to unblind the trial and to perform no additional analyses for the OS endpoint. In the separate Phase 2 PIVOT-10 study of the bempegaldesleukin/Opdivo doublet in patients with cisplatin-ineligible, locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer, a final ORR analysis assessed by BICR showed that bempegaldesleukin in combination with Opdivo did not reach an efficacy threshold to support continuing the program in urothelial carcinoma.