- Oral pill meets late-stage trial goals
- Over 82 million people infected each year
- Shares outperform year-to-date
Pharmaceutical giant GSK (GSK) said a late-stage trial of its oral antibiotic drug to treat gonorrhoea in adults and adolescents met it primary goals.
Gonorrhoea is a sexually-transmitted infection affecting more than 82 million people globally a year and increases the risk of HIV infection.
In the US, reported rates of the infection increased by 118% between 2009 and 2021 according to the US CDC (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention).
GSK shares ticked up 0.4% to £16.79 talking their year-to-date gain to 14% compared with a fall of 0.5% for the benchmark FTSE 100 index.
WHAT DID THE COMPANY SAY?
GSK shares have been on a roll since the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter sales and profit and raised its long term guidance at the end of January.
The company is planning for at least 12 major product launches from 2025, with new vaccines and specialty medicines for infectious diseases, HIV, respiratory and oncology.
GSK’s senior vice president of development Chris Corsico commented: ‘These positive headline results demonstrate the potential for gepotidacin to provide a novel oral treatment option in the face of rising resistance and for patients who cannot take other treatments due to allergies or intolerance.’
The company said the efficacy and safety of gepotidacin was no worse than the standard of care treatment involving the muscle-injected antibiotic ceftriaxone and bacteria-fighting pill azithromycin.
LEADING THE WAY IN UTI TREATMENT
The treatment is an investigational bactericidal first-in-class antibiotic which inhibits DNA replication by a novel mechanism and is effective against most targeted strains of uropathogens.
GSK is also developing gepotidacin for the potential treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infections (uUTI). If approved, it could be the first new class of oral antibiotics in uUTI on over 20-years.
The company has one of the largest and most diverse portfolios of medicines and vaccines in infectious diseases in the pharmaceutical industry.
