Physician Views: An assessment of GlaxoSmithKline's Breo launch – Can Anoro do any better?
Set against the backdrop of a streamlined therapeutic focus, GlaxoSmithKline faced a challenging Q1 in the US respiratory segment despite its market-leading position in the asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) fields.
ViewPoints: Streamlined and refocused, but GlaxoSmithKline needs respiratory portfolio to deliver.
Quarterly sales of its established ICS/LABA combination Advair declined significantly due to its exclusion from some preferred formulary listings and increased rebating from AstraZeneca (which markets the competing Symbicort brand; Spotlight On: Q1 results provide first glimpse of success for US formulary blocking tactics). Furthermore, GlaxoSmithKline's newer once-daily ICS/LABA product – Breo Ellipta – failed to gain notable traction in Q1 with management citing Medicare Part D reimbursement coverage as the primary barrier to uptake.
Investors – and competitors in the asthma and COPD markets – will therefore be watching closely as GlaxoSmithKline launches Anoro Ellipta, its first-to-market LABA/LAMA combination. Although the launch of Breo has underwhelmed, will it provide valuable lessons for GlaxoSmithKline and is Anoro likely to enjoy a faster rate of adoption as it is differentiated more greatly from Advair?
Set against this backdrop FirstWord is polling 100 US-based pulmonologists this week to determine...
ViewPoints: Streamlined and refocused, but GlaxoSmithKline needs respiratory portfolio to deliver.
Quarterly sales of its established ICS/LABA combination Advair declined significantly due to its exclusion from some preferred formulary listings and increased rebating from AstraZeneca (which markets the competing Symbicort brand; Spotlight On: Q1 results provide first glimpse of success for US formulary blocking tactics). Furthermore, GlaxoSmithKline's newer once-daily ICS/LABA product – Breo Ellipta – failed to gain notable traction in Q1 with management citing Medicare Part D reimbursement coverage as the primary barrier to uptake.
Investors – and competitors in the asthma and COPD markets – will therefore be watching closely as GlaxoSmithKline launches Anoro Ellipta, its first-to-market LABA/LAMA combination. Although the launch of Breo has underwhelmed, will it provide valuable lessons for GlaxoSmithKline and is Anoro likely to enjoy a faster rate of adoption as it is differentiated more greatly from Advair?
Set against this backdrop FirstWord is polling 100 US-based pulmonologists this week to determine...
- What specifically has acted as the primary factor in limiting any uptake of Breo Ellipta?
- What impact the future launch of generic Advair (potentially from 2016 onwards) is having on their prescribing habits for Breo?
- How initial experience with Breo (patient/physician) has compared with Advair?
- How important a launch (regarding level of unmet clinical need) they anticipate Anoro Ellipta to represent versus Breo?
- To what percentage of total COPD patients they anticipate prescribing Anoro to two years post launch?
