GlaxoSmithKline “excited” by results of hepatitis C drug trials

GlaxoSmithKline has said it is “excited” by results from phase II studies of its drug eltrombopag in trials for the treatment of hepatitis C.

Eltrombopag, an investigational non-peptide oral growth factor, was given to 74 hepatitis C patients with thrombocytopenia. Thrombocytopenia is characterised by a reduction of platelets in the blood and is the most common haematological complication in patients with chronic liver disease.

GlaxoSmithKline’s study found that over 95 per cent of patients treated with highest doses of eltrombopag had increased platelet counts, while patients in all treatment groups were able to initiate antiviral therapy with pegylated interferon-alpha (IFN) and ribavarin.

Pegylated IFN in conjunction with ribavarin is “critical” to the treatment of hepatitis C virus and is the standard therapy used to control infection with the virus.

Paolo Paoletti, managing director and senior vice president of the oncology medicine development centre at GlaxoSmithKline, commented: “As we move into phase III trials for eltrombopag in a variety of conditions where thrombocytopenia is a complicating factor, these data represent a significant milestone for GlaxoSmithKline in supportive care and underscore our continued commitment to deliver novel treatments to meet significant unmet medical need.”

GlaxoSmithKline further commented that while the Pegylated IFN combined with ribavarin treatment regimen can effectively manage hepatitis C virus, it ought to be used with caution in patients with existing thrombocytopenia.

It adds that the clinical trial shows that eltrombopag could be the first oral therapy for hepatitis C which increases platelet counts and initiates and maintains antiviral therapy, a development that Geoffrey Dusheiko, prefessor of medicine at the Royal Free Hospital has described as “tremendously exciting”.

GlaxoSmithKline is currently in talks with the UK government about the development of a vaccine against the outbreak of pandemic avian flu.

Jean-Pierre Garnier, chief executive of the company, has met Tony Blair and Gordon Brown about the possibility of stockpiling millions of doses of the vaccine, according to reports from the Times.