Glaxo says Advair shows edge over Spiriva in COPD

LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Friday that clinical trial results showed its top-seller Advair had an edge over Pfizer Inc's rival product Spiriva in treating patients with the lung disease COPD.

A two-year study of 1,300 patients found both drugs had a similar impact on rate of exacerbations, but people treated with Advair gained a significant improvement in health status and greater survival benefit than those on Spiriva, the firm said.

Advair reduced the risk of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) dying from any cause by 52 percent compared with patients on Spiriva.

Results of the first head-to-head study of the two medicines in COPD were published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

While the number of exacerbations -- or sudden worsening of symptoms -- was not significantly different between the two groups, cases requiring antibiotics were more frequent in patients on Advair while exacerbations needing systemic steroids were more common with Spiriva.

In terms of safety and tolerability, there was an increase in cases of pneumonias in the Advair group, at 8 percent, compared with 4 percent with Spiriva. Candidiasis was also reported more often in the Advair group (6 percent) than the Spiriva group (3 percent).

Advair, which is also sold as Seretide, is Glaxo's biggest product, with 2006 sales of 3.3 billion pounds.