GSK plans to launch cardio drug after July

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (GSK India) would shortly roll out Carvedilol, the blockbuster cardiovascular drug licensed from the Swiss pharma major Roche, in the domestic market.

Carvedilol, the first beta blocker that showed improved results of survival in a wide spectrum of heart failure patients, is currently co-promoted in the US as Coreg by GlaxoSmithKline and Roche through another licensing arrangement between these two global majors.

GSK India, which recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Roche for licensing this patented molecule, is expected to launch this new-generation cardiovascular drug after July this year, company sources said.

The regulatory approval procedures are currently on for the product. However, the company is yet to finalise the Indian brand name for this molecule, they added.

Currently, Roche is marketing this drug worldwide except the US and Japan, under the trade names like Cardiol, Coreg, Coropres, Dilbloc, Dimitone, Eucardic and Kredex. In Japan, it is marketed by Daiichi under the trade name Artist.

In the domestic market, Carvedilol's size is pegged at Rs 16.6 crore of the Rs 430 crore cardiovascular segment. There are about five generic brands of the drug available in the country at present.

GSK India is also likely to introduce three more products "" two paediatric vaccines and one asthma drug "" from its own portfolio in the local market this year.

The company had launched four new products, licensed from companies in the US and Japan, in the local market last year. It had also entered the diabetes segment through the launch of Windia and Windamet.

Though the company has decided to launch the new beta blocker in the Indian cardiovascular market, it is still not clear if it would be under the same brand, Coreg, as the parent company sells it in the US.

Medical experts think Carvedilol would have an edge over the existing beta blockers, as it blocks all three receptors believed to be involved in the progression of heart failure ""beta_1, beta_2 and alpha_1 receptors.

The broad spectrum of Carvedilol's pharmacologic actions may account for its favourable effects across a wide range of patients.

However, the basis for the beneficial effects (mechanism of action) of the beta blocker in heart failure is not known. Carvedilol is the only drug with beta blocking properties approved in the US for the treatment of mild or moderate heart failure.