GSK Raised Bets On Promising AIDS Drug

GSK Raised Bets On Promising AIDS Drug

GlaxoSmithKline has increased its bet on a promising drug for HIV/AIDS by redrawing a deal with Japan's Shionogi which gives it a much bigger economic interest in the new product.

Dolutegravir, a once-daily drug that has performed strongly in clinical trials, is seen by analysts as a prospective multi-billion-dollar-a-year seller and a strong competitor to treatments from market leader Gilead Sciences.

The drug belongs to a novel class known as integrase inhibitors that block the virus causing AIDS from entering cells.

Under the new signed agreement Shionogi will take a 10 percent share in Viiv Healthcare - an HIV drug combined venture set up in 2009 between Britain's biggest drugmaker and Pfizer - in exchange for its rights to dolutegravir.

"It's an affirmation of our belief in dolutegravir as a potential important medicine in HIV," the chief strategy officer David Redfern of GSK told in an interview on Monday. "We're taking in house, in this case through ViiV, what we deem to be an important growth asset."

Dolutegravir is scheduled to be presented for regulatory approval in the United States and Europe by end of this year. Industry analysts expect a launch by late 2013, with sales ramping up to around $1 billion by 2016, according to consensus estimates compiled byThomson Reuters Pharma.

GSK, like its rivals, has suffered a string of patent expiries in recent years. Despite coming through this so-called "patent cliff" earlier than most other drug firms, it is still struggling to grow sales.

Results for the third quarter, due on Wednesday, are expected to show another difficult period of trading, weighed on by price cuts in Europe and weak vaccine sales.

Posted by George Daniels on Wednesday October 31 2012, 4:18 AM EDT. Ref: Yahoo. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0