Rivals race to develop new biotech asthma drugs

[riky]

Rivals race to develop new biotech asthma drugs

<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/rivals-race-develop-biotech-asthma-drugs-125310956--finance.html"><img src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/A5gdy7o6yUzqC2IvQRjizg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTg2O3E9NzU7dz0xMzA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-03-18T125453Z_1_CBREA2H0ZVJ00_RTROPTP_2_PHARMACEUTICALS-ASTHMA.JPG" width="130" height="86" alt="File photo shows a visitor looking at plastinated lungs at an Gunther Von Hagens exhibition in Lima" align="left" title="File photo shows a visitor looking at plastinated lungs at an Gunther Von Hagens exhibition in Lima" border="0" /></a>By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - Rival firms are racing to develop injectable biotech asthma drugs for patients with severe disease who don't respond well to traditional inhalers, in pursuit of a new market worth a possible $7.5 billion. Britain's GlaxoSmithKline, the leader in asthma treatments since launching its Ventolin inhaler in 1969, is in the vanguard but faces competition from the likes of Roche, AstraZeneca, Sanofi and Teva. Despite treatment advances in recent decades, asthma is still not well controlled in up to 20 percent of patients on standard therapy, which consists of inhaled steroids and long-acting beta agonists that are designed to open the airways. Novel antibody-based drugs now nearing the market offer a way to get to the root of the problem by targeting key inflammatory chemicals made in the body that drive asthma.</p><br clear="all"/>

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