Glaxo reports positive data on new anti-nausea pill at cancer seminar UPDATE

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - GlaxoSmithKline PLC revealed positive results from a final-stage trial of a new treatment to combat nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy and operations, as Europe's biggest drug maker showcased its portfolio of upcoming cancer drugs at a seminar for investors.

The company compared the drug, formally known as casopitant and now branded Rezonic, given in combination with Zofran, against Zofran alone. The older anti-nausea pill, also made by Glaxo, has recently lost patent protection.

The company saw a 69 pct improvement in patients given Rezonic combined with Zofran, both orally and intravenously, compared to responses of 59 pct and 53 pct in those given only the older treatment, respectively.

'That is a clear significant improvement in the control of nausea and vomiting over Zofran,' Glaxo's head of research and development Moncef Slaoui told reporters on a conference call ahead of the announcement.

Glaxo plans to file Rezonic for approval in the first half of next year.

Rezonic is one of five key new cancer-related drugs the company plans to launch by 2010, the result of an increased focus in Glaxo's R&D laboratories on one of the fastest growing areas of medicine.

The market is currently valued at 20 bln stg and is growing annually at 20 pct, the company estimates.

Alongside Rezonic, Glaxo hopes to launch cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix, pazopanib for renal cell carcinoma, Promacta for thrombocytopenia, a low blood platelet condition, and ofatumumab, in trials for non Hodgkin's lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic lymphoma.

The treatments follow the newly approved breast cancer pill Tykerb, seen as one of the company's most promising new products. Glaxo said since launch in the US in March, more than 3,000 patients have received the treatment.

Still, the company has to prove it can be used in a wider setting before sales climb significantly, analysts believe.

It can currently only be marketed to treat HER2 positive advanced breast cancer -- cancer that has spread to other parts of the body -- in combination with chemotherapy agent Xeloda, in women who have already been given Herceptin and are not responding to it.

At today's seminar, the company will highlight data released earlier this month at cancer conference ASCO, where it released data pointing to Tykerb's efficacy in brain metastases and as a first line therapy for breast cancer.

Slaoui said data comparing Tykerb to Roche's Herceptin will be available at the end of the year.

At 2.05 pm Glaxo shares were trading 6 pence lower at 1,320.

amy.brown@thomson.com

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