Glaxo raises stake in US biotech firm

Shares in the south San Francisco-based company jumped 15 per cent to $22.40 on the news.

Britain’s biggest drugmaker has been working with Theravance for 10 years to develop Relovair, an inhaled therapy combining two ingredients, which is a potential successor to GSK’s $8bn-a-year top-seller Advair.

Relovair will be submitted to regulators for approval as a treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in mid-2012. The new drug has had mixed results in clinical trials, showing superiority to Advair in some tests but not others.

Still, GSK remains confident and hopes the convenience of once-daily dosing will appeal to patients, helping Relovair carve out good sales as a replacement for twice-daily dose needed for Advair.