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By JIM EDWARDS / MONEYWATCH / September 17, 2008, 2:52 PM

GlaxoSmithKline Bets Solzira CanWin Where Requip Failed

Last Updated Sep 17, 2008 2:52 PM EDT

GlaxoSmithKline's announcement yesterday thatit is submitting a new drug application for Solzira tothe FDA for the treatment of Restless Legs Syndromeraises a question: What was wrong with its oldtreatment for RLS, Requip, launched only in 2005?

The short answer is that it was destroyed, in part byan association with gambling addiction, but mostlywhen it went generic. GSK reported Requip onlygenerated £58 million in sales worldwide lastquarter.

That raises a further question as to whether it is wise to launch Solzira againstcheap generics. As I have mentioned a couple of times recently, there's awell-established law of competition in the drug business: cheap generics win. Butwith this launch, GSK is joining Cephalon and Shire as companies that havedecided that this law somehow doesn't apply to them.

On its face, there is little evidence to suggest that GSK is right in coming to thisconclusion. Requip's life at GSK was short and unhappy. It generated $986 millionin sales from 2005 to 2007, according to this excellent MSNBC report. NielsenMonitor-Plus tells me that over the same period, GSK spent $248 millionadvertising Requip in TV and print ads. Put another way, 25 percent of Requip'srevenues were immediately burned by its adspend -- that's an astonishinglyinefficient marketing effort, and a stand-out example of why people believe thatdrug advertising makes medicine more expensive.

On the other hand, GSK may be eyeing a very different set of facts. Requip wasdogged by rumors that it causes a pathological gambling addiction among some ofits users. This is because it is a dopamine agonist, like its sister drug Mirapex,which produces a "high" that makes users think they are geniuses at roulette. Infact Requip's label has warnings about gambling on it.

The interesting thing, therefore, about the Solzira application is that it is not adopamine agonist. It's a gabapentin, and gabapentin isn't associated with the urgeto rent a limo and stay up all night in Atlantic City.

So maybe GSK thinks this new gabapentin, with its lower side effect profile, candominate lesser generics. Possibly. Until, of course, doctors wake up to the factthat there are already plenty of generic gabapentins on the market, such asNeurontin.

Which brings me back to my first point about the laws of competition in the drugbusiness ...© 2008 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.

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