OREANDA-NEWS. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) today announced that they have entered into a collaboration agreement with UCLA as part of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Immuno-Oncology Rare Population Malignancy (I-O RPM) research program in the U.S. The I-O RPM research program is a multi-institutional initiative with academic-based cancer centers focused on the clinical investigation of immuno-oncology therapeutics as potential treatment options for patients with high risk, poor prognostic cancers, defined as a rare population malignancy.

Bristol-Myers Squibb and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA will conduct a range of early phase clinical studies as part of the I-O RPM research program, and Bristol-Myers Squibb will fund positions within UCLA’s fellowship program in the UCLA Division of Hematology/Oncology.

“The I-O RPM research program is an important complement to Bristol-Myers Squibb’s broad research and development program for immuno-oncology,” said Laura Bessen, M.D., head of U.S. Medical, Bristol-Myers Squibb. “We look forward to working with UCLA in an effort to continue advancing the science in this innovative field of research and cancer treatment.”

About I-O RPM

Immuno-oncology is an innovative approach to cancer research and treatment that is designed to harness the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. The I-O RPM research program focuses on significant areas of high unmet need marked by poor outcomes among patients with rare population malignancies. A rare population malignancy is a subpopulation within a higher incident disease population. These patients have aggressive disease with an increased potential for early metastasis to multiple sites and/or are initially refractory or subject to early recurrences with conventional cancer therapies. Existing clinical research provide a strong rationale for further research into the potential of immunotherapies for these cancers.

The I-O RPM research program is a multi-institutional initiative with Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University and the Northwestern Medicine Developmental Therapeutics Institute, Moffitt Cancer Center, The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins and now UCLA. I-O RPM builds on Bristol-Myers Squibb’s formation in 2012 of the International Immuno-Oncology Network (II-ON), which is a global collaboration between Bristol-Myers Squibb and academia focused on facilitating the translation of scientific research findings into clinical trials and, eventually, clinical practice.

About Bristol Myers Squibb

Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases.