TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares of Ono Pharmaceutical Co 4528.T jumped to levels not seen in over two years after a Nobel Prize was awarded to researchers for a cancer-fighting method used in Opdivo, a drug it co-developed with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co BMY.N.

Shares of the Japanese drugmaker soared as much as 6.9 percent in early morning trade on Tuesday to hit 3,430 yen, the highest level since August 2016.

On Monday, American James Allison and Japanese Tasuku Honjo won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for game-changing discoveries about how to harness and manipulate the immune system to fight cancer. Their work in the 1990s has since swiftly led to new and dramatically improved therapies for cancers such as melanoma and lung cancer.