Bird flu drug set to boost Glaxo By Ceri Radford 10/01/2006
Glaxo Smithkline expects sales of its bird flu treatment Relenza to jump this year as governments start stockpiling the fledgling competitor to Roche's Tamiflu.
As the race to find weapons against a potential flu pandemic intensifies, the UK drugs giant has also followed on the heels of French rival Sanofi-Aventis by piloting a vaccine aimed at avian flu.
Glaxo's experimental vaccine "mocks up" what the next pandemic flu strain might look like in an attempt to provide some immunity against an outbreak, while approved medicines such as Tamiflu and Relenza alleviate the symptoms of patients who are already ill.
"Looking at the orders we have had for Relenza towards the end of last year, we expect to see a significant increase in sales in 2006," said a Glaxo spokesman.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu struck on the doorstep of Europe last week, killing three children in Turkey - the first fatalities outside of East Asia.
Relenza belongs to the same class as flu pill Tamiflu, but has to be taken through an inhaler - a less popular delivery method that has prevented it rivalling the dizzy sales of Roche's drug. Glaxo expects the drug to have made a modest £4m in 2005.
"It's never going to be a huge product for them. But I think what's important is that they've made significant investment in vaccines," said analyst Sav Neophytou at Seymour Pierce.
The avian flu virus is mostly spread through direct contact with infected birds, but scientists fear it could mutate into a form that can be passed from person to person.
Until this happens it is impossible to create a specific vaccine, but Glaxo will start trials this April for a shot combining the H5N1 strain with forms of the flu virus linked to previous pandemics in the hope it will boost the body's defences.
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