The Hindu Business Line : Glaxo Pharma’s new move to be lucrative

GlaxoSmithKline Pharma’s intention to launch breast cancer drug Tykerb in the first half of 2008 appears to be a positive development for the company, as it could help it enter a niche market, which is quite lucrative.

Affordability Issues

Globally, oncology is one of the top therapeutic areas but the picture in India is very different.

The oncology market in the country has failed to take off owing to a lower diagnosis rate and affordability issues. GSK’s Tykerb, when launched, looks capable of bypassing these two hurdles.

Pricing may not be a pressing issue for the drug, as this is a drug that already targets patients suffering from metastatic cancer (the most advanced stage), who have failed to respond to Roche’s Herceptin. Most patients who develop metastatic breast cancer are those for whom initial treatment has failed.

Roche’s Herceptin (generically known as Trastuzumab) costs about Rs 6-7 lakh for a full course treatment, comprising seven shots. Significantly, Tykerb is also not an intravenous medication. It is a once-daily oral drug but has been approved by FDA to be used in conjunction with orally-administered chemotherapeutic agent Roche’s Xeloda.

Registration

With marketing approval already in its bag, GSK is currently awaiting site registration.

While established players such as Dr Reddy’s, Sun Pharma, Cipla, Dabur Pharma, and Biocon have a focussed oncology portfolio, GSK’s breast cancer drug may compete with Dabur Pharma’s paclitaxel nano drug (already launched) and Biocon’s ABRAXENE (expected to be launched in 2008).

As Tykerb is not a first-in-line drug, pricing will be structured around the selected patient group.