Extra phase II studies boost GSK’s Relovair

pharmafile | September 23, 2010 | News story | |  COPD, GlaxoSmithKline, Relovair, asthma 

GlaxoSmithKline has conducted additional phase II trials on its asthma/COPD drug Relovair to answer a number of safety and efficacy questions.

Relovair is GSK’s follow-up to its blockbuster respiratory drug Seretide (Advair in the US), which is currently the company’s biggest selling product.

Relovair is a combination of a new long-acting beta agonist vilanterol trifenatate (VI), and GSK’s existing corticosteroid, fluticasone furoate (FF).

The findings included results showing Relovair did not adversely affect heart function, while other studies showed VI improved lung function in COPD patients.

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This is the first time that GlaxoSmithKline and its partner Theravance have revealed detailed clinical trial data for the new combination drug, although encouraging results have previously been presented for the medicine’s two separate components.

Phase III trials of a once-daily Relovair in COPD and asthma, commenced in October 2009 and March 2010 respectively.

Analysts at Citigroup said Relovair showed an improvement over Seretide in helping patients increase their lung capacity, using the FEV1 measure. The data showed Revolair produced an improvement in FEV1 compared to placebo of 183 millilitres after 29 days.  Seretide by comparison, produced an average 165 ml improvement after six months.

The phase III programmes are assessing the potential benefit of the combination FF/VI versus the component products and existing treatments for asthma and COPD in over 11,000 patients.

Brett Wells

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