A week after announcing plans to boost its late-stage pipeline with the £1.5bn acquisition of Sierra Oncology (NASDAQ:SRRA), GlaxoSmithKline PLC (LSE:GSK) has unveiled some home-grown success.
It said the US Food & Drug Administration has accepted a new drug application for daprodustat for people with chronic kidney disease that also suffer from anaemia.
It follows the successful completion of five clinical trials and a regulatory submission to the European Medicines Agency.
The treatment has already received official sign-off in Japan.
It is estimated that 700mln people worldwide suffer from chronic kidney disease, while one in seven of them also have anaemia.
That said, analysts don’t expect daprodustat, known by the trade name Duvroq, to move the dial.
Peak sales are forecast to be £500mln-£1bn. To put this into context, GSK’s sales last year were £34bn.