GSK receives positive opinion for COPD treatment
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has received a positive opinion from the European Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products (CPMP) for its Seretide (Seretide Diskus 500/50) as a new treatment for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This means that European marketing authorisation should be granted within the next few months followed by launches across Europe in the first half of 2003.
'Today's decision by the CPMP represents a milestone in the treatment of COPD – Seretide is an effective and convenient medicine for the treatment of COPD and offers real hope to those physicians and patients fighting this deadly disease,' said Andrew Witty, president, pharmaceuticals, Europe at GSK.
The approval is important for Europe where COPD is currently the fifth largest killer1 and affects an estimated 340m COPD patients worldwide2.
Seretide is the first inhaled steroid/long acting beta2 agonist combination product to receive a positive European regulatory opinion for the treatment of COPD a multi-component disease.
Note: Seretide is marketed as Viani in Germany.
References
1. Murray CJL, Lopez AD. Eds. The Global Burden of Disease: a comprehensive assessment of mortality and disability from diseases, injuries, and risk factors in 1990 and projected to 2002. Cambridge; Harvard University Press; 1996. 2. The World Health Report 1998. Life in the 21st Century. A vision for all. World Health Organisation, Geneva, 1998.