New data gives Seretide upper hand in respiratory battle
pharmafile | September 20, 2005 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Â
Seretide's domination in the global respiratory market looks set to be bolstered by a new head to head study with AstraZeneca's rival Symbicort.
Patients using GlaxoSmithKline's Seretide are less likely to require hospital admission or oral steroid treatment for their asthma than those taking Symbicort, according to data from the one year CONCEPT study.
The study of nearly 700 patients also found that asthma patients using Seretide benefited from an average of 32 extra symptom-free days a year compared with those using Symbicort.
The news is the latest salvo in a heated marketing battle between the fixed dose Seretide (salmeterol and fluticasone) and the adjustable dosing of Symbicort (budesonide and formoterol).
Both drugs are a combination of a long-acting beta2 agonist and a corticosteroid but in terms of sales Seretide remains in a class of its own, GSK's drug earning $4.5 billion last year, compared to just $797 million for Symbicort.
In England, the NHS spent 39.5 million in 2004 on Symbicort, compared with 177.3 million on Seretide.
Dr Mark FitzGerald from the University of British Columbia and the lead investigator on the trial said: "Asthma patients really should expect to lead a symptom-free life. The CONCEPT study shows that regular therapy with salmeterol and fluticasone achieves excellent asthma control when compared to an adjustable dosing strategy with budesonide and formoterol."
During the study's period of comparison the median percentage of symptom free days for patients on Seretide was 74% compared with 65% for those on Symbicort. The study also found that Seretide patients experienced a mean reduction in their yearly exacerbation of 47% compared to those on Symbicort.
The CONCEPT findings were presented at the European Respiratory Society's annual congress in Copenhagen, where GSK also unveiled its new Asthma Control Test. The test, which can be completed online or downloaded and printed out, consists of five short questions to assess the severity of asthma in patients aged 12 and over.
There was some good news for AstraZeneca in the trial. Both Symbicort and GSK's Seretide were found to improve daily symptom scores of patients and the number of times their asthma kept them awake at night. Moreover, the drugs were found to be equally effective in both these trial endpoints.
Earlier this year AstraZeneca published its own head-to-head trial of the two drugs in support of its bid to extend Symbicort's licence.
Patients must currently use a reliever inhaler in conjunction with either Seretide or Symbicort for use in severe asthma attacks, but AstraZeneca said its new COSMOS trial data from over 2,100 patients proved Symbicort's formoterol component was effective in treating severe asthma attacks.
The company hopes the data will lead to a licence allowing patients to only carry a Symbicort inhaler, which could help significantly in boosting sales.
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Tuesday , June 21, 2005
