A new, improved Relenza?
Via Bloomberg: Longer-acting Relenza fights flu as well as Tamiflu, study says. Excerpt:
Daiichi Sankyo Co.'s longer-acting version of GlaxoSmithKline Plc's flu drug, Relenza, was as effective as a course of Tamiflu, a patient study found.
The safety and efficacy of a single dose of the inhaled medicine was "statistically indistinguishable'' from a twice-a- day dose of Roche Holding AG's Tamiflu taken for five days, said Melbourne-based Biota Holdings Ltd., which is developing the drug with Japan's Daiichi Sankyo.
The study, involving "several hundred'' patients with seasonal flu, was the second of three stages of human trials usually needed for regulatory approval.
The companies plan to start final-stage tests in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea by the Northern Hemisphere winter, Biota said in a statement today. If approved, the medicine could provide a new treatment for flu, a disease causing 250,000 to 500,000 deaths worldwide a year.
Previous studies also showed the medicine fights the H5N1 version of bird flu, which world health officials say might set off a lethal pandemic.
