GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) CFO Simon Dingemans is among those at the JP Morgan Global Healthcare Conference this week in San Francisco and he took some time out to discuss respiratory drug candidate Relovair, which the company said would be submitted this year to U.S. and European regulators for approval.
Bloomberg Television in this video interview asked Dingemans about “disappointing results” but the query didn’t go far enough. Dingemans said that the results weren’t disappointing and that the drug candidate, which was seen as a successor to blockbuster drug Advair, is part of a drug pipeline of forthcoming GSK respiratory products.
“That has always been the strategy and thinking about moving on from Advair is bringing a pipeline and a portfolio to the approach, not just one product in isolation,” Dingemans said.
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The Relovair data GSK and drug partner Theravance (NASDAQ:THRX) released Monday showed that the drug was statistically significant in clinical trials. That’s important for making the case for drug approval.
But where investors were disappointed, and what Bloomberg should have pressed, was the detail about Relovair’s performance compared to Advair, the GSK drug for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, or COPD. British pharma giant GSK, which has its U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, has seen its Advair patents expire and the drug, which alone generates more than $8 billion in annual revenue for GSK, faces potential generic competition.
Among the Relovair studies was one study that compared the drug to Advair. Relovair offers the prospect of once-a-day dosing, compared to twice-a-day Advair, so it has a slight advantage for patient drug compliance. But the crucial comparison is head-to-head effectiveness. Results showed no statistical significance between Relovair compared to Advair. If Relovair is no better than Advair, the drug’s advantage compared to Advair — or any Advair generics — is diminished.
“We’re not disappointed with the data, we clearly have an effective product,” Dingemans said.
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An effective product, yes. But with those results, it won’t be as lucrative as GSK or its investors had hoped.