Bristol-Myers misses main goal of late-stage skin cancer trial

(Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co <BMY.N> said on Wednesday a late-stage trial testing a combination of its cancer drugs missed a main goal of preventing skin cancer from recurring in a certain group of patients, sending its shares down nearly 1%.

The company said the trial will continue unchanged as per the recommendation of a data monitoring committee.

The trial was testing Bristol-Myers' drugs Opdivo and Yervoy, against Opdivo alone, in patients with advanced melanoma.

The combination failed to show a statistically significant benefit in patients whose tumours had 1% or lower levels of the PD-L1 protein being targeted, the company said.

The American Cancer Society estimates that about 96,480 melanoma cases will be diagnosed in the United States this year.

Bristol-Myers shares were trading at $55.99 before the bell.

(Reporting by Dania Nadeem in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)