How Merck Caused Bristol-Myers' Plunge, page-3

I note:

BMS actually has a combination study using another oncolytic virus called Enadenotucirev developed by PsiOxus and Opdivo. They announced this back in June 2016. Notice the timeliness of this announcement in June 2016 and the failure of Opdivo in NSCLC in August 2016. Maybe BMS was being pre-emptive about their results.

However, this is where the safety profiles becomes critical. Check out PsiOxus first human study - EVOLVE scientific poster. Grade 3 adverse events occurred in this study whereas as we're all familiar with, Cavatak is superb with its safety profile. Perhaps it's because VLA undertook a combo in Yervoy/Cavatak and not for Opdivo which BMS are seriously trying to repair after the poor results in NSCLC. Even if their combo yielded high ORs, I'm betting that the safety would be less than desired.

Whatever the case, Cavatak still has the lead on combos using oncolytic viruses. Bring on the showdown between Merck and BMS I say.