GlaxoSmithKline: The Unluckiest Pharma Company in the World

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the world’s second-largest drug maker, just can’t seem to catch a break.

It appears the Swiss pharma giant can do nothing right these days. First, there was Advair, the asthma drug that worsened the condition with prolonged use, then there was Avandia, the diabetes drug which has been shown to cause heart attacks. Now, there is GSK’s vaccine for the diarrhea-inducing virus Rotarix. The vaccine was found to contain traces of the supposedly innocuous pig disease called porcine circovirus.

Several governments have advised their doctors to avoid treating patients with the drug until the risk of the unintended ingredients can be determined. Switzerland is the most recent country to issue a cease and desist order. The company spokespeople insist this is only a temporary precaution, and that those who have already been inoculated with the drug have nothing to fear. Stay tuned for further mishaps from GlaxoSmithKline, we predict their heavy-hitter, Tums, will be shown to cause indigestion and heartburn.

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Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline in deal to supply low-cost vaccines

Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline will supply hundreds of millions of doses of their pneumonia vaccines to the world's poorest countries at heavily discounted prices under a novel agreement, reports the New York Times.

The deal was announced by the Gavi Alliance, a non-profit organisation, which estimated the program could save a total of 900,000 lives by 2015 and up to seven million lives by 2030.

Pneumococcal disease not only kills small children but also maims, leaving survivors with high rates of mental disability, seizures and deafness, says Sarah Boseley in the Guardian. She continues: "There's no doubt about the good that such a vaccine can do. But there will continue to be questions about the way the deal has been done, not least because it is the first of its kind and sets a pattern for the future".

Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline will provide up to 300 million doses each of their vaccines over a 10-year period under the new agreement. The price for the first 20% of the supply will be $7 a dose. Then the price will drop to $3.50 a dose for the remainder. The vaccines would be paid for by donations raised by Gavi and by the governments of the countries that ordered the vaccines. In Western markets, the pneumococcal vaccines sell for $54 to $108 a dose.

"For the price of a Starbucks latte, developing countries are going to be able to buy a dose of a life-saving vaccine," said Orin Levine, director of the international vaccine access center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who has worked with GAVI.

The NYT reports that officials involved in the deal say that it historically took many years for a vaccine developed in the West to trickle down to developing countries. But the new program would make the first vaccines available to Africa this year.

"American kids and African kids will get this new vaccine in the same year," Dr. Levine of Johns Hopkins said. "That's just never happened before."

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GlaxoSmithKline makes vaccine executive changes

British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline PLC on Friday announced two changes in the executive lineup of its vaccines business.

Jean Stephenne was appointed chairman of GSK Biologicals with immediate effect. He will also continue in his current role as president of GSK Biologicals.

Over the next two years, Glaxo said, operational responsibility will be taken over by Dr. Moncef Slaoui, who will also continue as chairman for research & development.

"Jean has built a world-leading vaccines business and as chairman will continue to be instrumental in driving forward our public health agenda," said Chief Executive Andrew Witty.

"Moncef has more than 17 years experience working in the vaccines area and has played a critical role in developing the strong pipeline we have today. These changes will ensure continued strong focus on delivery and development of this pipeline."

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GE and Hitachi want to use nuclear waste as a fuel

One of the world's biggest providers of nuclear reactors, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (a joint venture of General Electric and Hitachi), wants to reprocess nuclear waste for use as a fuel in advanced nuclear power plants, instead of burying it in waste repositories such as that proposed at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

Conventional nuclear power plants in the US only harness around five percent of the energy of nuclear fuels. The reprocessing technique would separate nuclear waste into different types of fuels, some of which can be used in conventional nuclear power plants, and some of which can only be used in advanced fast neutron reactors. Reprocessing of nuclear waste to extract more useable fuel has been criticized in the US because it produces pure plutonium, which could be stolen and used to make nuclear weapons. To get around this difficulty, GE Hitachi’s proposed method produces a fuel that is much harder to steal.

The GE Hitachi process separates wastes from conventional nuclear power plants into three streams, by applying voltage to a molten salt. The first waste material consists of the products of fission, which cannot be further used as fuel and will need to be stored, but the storage time required is reduced from tens of thousands of years to a few hundred years (although a small fraction of the material will still need to be stored for over 10,000 years). The second material is uranium that does not have enough fissile material to be used in the light water uranium reactors in the US, which need enriched uranium, but it can be used by deuterium (heavy water) uranium reactors, which are used in Canada.

The final group of waste products is a mixture of transuranic elements including plutonium and neptunium. The plutonium is not separated from the other elements, and the mixture releases 1,000 times more heat and 10,000 times more neutrons than pure plutonium. This makes it much harder to steal, and therefore less of a security risk, and it is also much easier to detect. The mixture of transuranic elements can be used in nuclear reactors that use molten sodium as the coolant rather than water, and this type is used in Japan and a few other countries. GE Hitachi has designed a reactor known as the PRISM reactor that would be able to use the mixed fuel, but sodium cooled reactors have not been approved for use in the US.

A GE Hitachi spokesman said previous US administrations had little interest in re-using spent nuclear fuel, but the Obama administration is increasing support for nuclear power and looking at possibilities such as reprocessing. If adopted, the proposal would significantly decrease the amount of dangerous nuclear waste that needs to be stored.

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GlaxoSmithKline to cut 380 jobs at UK research facility

UK-based pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline is planning to reduce its workforce at the company's R&D facility in Harlow, Essex. According to reports, approximately 380 employees are likely to lose their jobs at the facility.

The company has decided to implement the job reductions following the completion of projects for pain relief, anxiety and depression drugs.

Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, was quoted by Canadian Business Online as saying: "Glaxo would discontinue research in some areas including depression and pain, and would focus more on degenerative and inflammatory diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease."

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