The FDA said it has approved Checkpoint Therapeutics' drug for treatment of a type of cancer on the outer layer of the skin.

Approval for the drug, which will be sold under the brand Unloxcyt, is for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma which can be both locally advanced as well as for when it spreads into other areas of the body, the FDA said.

Unloxcyt is part of a class called PD-L1 antibody, in which the drug works by binding to a protein called programmed death-ligand 1 that helps the body's immune system to kill cancer cells.

The approval was based on results from a study of 109 patients, in which the drug helped show an overall response rate of 47% in patients with a metastatic type of cancer and 48% in those with an advanced local form of the disease.