Schering Plough signs new global asthma collaboration

Schering-Plough has finalised an agreement with Novartis to engage in a global partnership to produce a new once-daily, fixed-dose combination therapy for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The American company will combine mometasone, the corticosteroid ingredient in Asmanex, with Novartis’ indacaterol, a beta-2 agonist, taken once daily. The collaboration marks new entries from both companies into the fast-growing asthma/COPD combination therapy market.

It follows a previous partnership between the companies that involved combining mometasone with Novartis’ Foradil. This combination therapy has so far reached phase III development.

Fred Hassan, chairman and chief executive officer of Schering-Plough, remarked: “Today’s announcement represents another action we are taking to strengthen our respiratory franchise and increase our value to health care providers and patients.”

“This agreement brings together proven and promising therapeutic agents for asthma and COPD, as well as the strong technological and marketing expertise of two global pharmaceutical companies,” he added.

Robert J Spiegel, chief medical officer at Schering-Plough, concluded: “The combination of mometasone and indacaterol has the potential to enhance current therapy and help improve the quality of life for patients.”

New research has found that the lack of interferon protein in the lungs of asthma sufferers explains why they are more susceptible to severe asthma attacks when they have a cold.

Professor Sebastian Johnston of the Imperial College London said the discovery of the importance of interferon in the lungs could have “huge importance” in the treatment of asthma attacks.

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