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LONDON (Alliance News) - GlaxoSmithKline PLC on Tuesday said its ViiV Healthcare HIV joint venture has received positive results from a recent study, said it will partner with US peer Merck & Co on a cancer treatment and outlined the details of its research and development day.
Glaxo said the results from the study showed the investigational, long-acting, injectable formulations of cabotegravir, ViiV Healthcare's treatment, and rilpivirine, made by Johnson & Johnson's Janssen unit, were comparable in maintaining viral suppression rates.
ViiV and Janssen are working together on the study.
"ViiV Healthcare is committed to identifying new therapeutic options for physicians and people living with HIV. These initial phase IIb data investigating long-acting cabotegravir and rilpivirine are promising and build on the results we have seen to date. We look forward to seeing further results as we move into phase III," said John Pottage, ViiV's chief scientific and medical officer.
In a separate statement Glaxo said it will partner with Merck on a phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate Glaxo's GSK3174998 immunotherapy as a monotherapy in combination with Keytruda, Merck's drug, in patients with locally-advanced, recurrent or metastatic solid tumours.
"There have been meaningful advances in survival across several cancers recently, mostly based on single agent checkpoint modulatory drugs. The combination study of Keytruda with GSK's OX40 agonist will seek to build on that progress with the aim of contributing further improvements for patients. We think combining these two agents that use different aspects of the immune system may be an important step toward achieving this goal," said Axel Hoos, vice-president of oncology research and development at Glaxo.
The news came as Glaxo outlined the details of its research and development day, being held in New York on Tuesday. The company has detailed around 40 new potential medicines and vaccines and said the new products will support its outlook for 2016 to 2020 and will underpin the potential opportunities for the group to create value beyond that.
"Today, we have profiled around 40 innovative potential new medicines and vaccines which will support future growth in our Pharmaceuticals and Vaccines businesses. Several of these assets are in advanced late-stage development and, for the first time, we have also outlined the scale of new opportunities GSK has in earlier stages of development, notably in areas such as oncology and immuno-inflammation," said Glaxo Chief Executive Andrew Witty.
"The level of innovation in this portfolio is substantial. We believe this is critical in today's operating environment as payors look to balance pressures of pricing and demand. It also provides us with confidence that this portfolio can generate significant value for shareholders and deliver widespread benefits to patients and consumers," Witty added.
Shares in GlaxoSmithKline were down 0.8% to 1,385.5 pence on Tuesday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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