Posted on 22/08/2011 in Pharmaceutical Company Product News

Bristol-Myers Squibb's innovative new skin cancer therapy Yervoy has been made available to patients in the UK.

The ipilimumab-based offering has been ratified by the European Medicine Agency as a therapy for melanoma, making it the first new treatment for this condition to go on sale since the 1970s.

Currently, Yervoy is available in certain parts of the UK via the Cancer Drugs Fund, with British regulator the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence currently assessing whether it is cost-effective enough to come into widespread NHS use.

Dr Paul Lorigan, senior lecturer in medical oncology at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, noted that Yervoy represents a "real advance" in the treatment of this disease and has been shown to significantly extend patients' life expectancy.

"After years of no progress in the treatment of this terrible illness, we have now made a stride forward," he said.

According to data from Bristol-Myers Squibb's most recent financial report, the company has seen double-digit sales growth in the second quarter of 2011.