GSK hobble the Tempus Ten

From The Times
July 7, 2007

Glaxo hobble the Tempus Ten

Halfway through 2007, there is still plenty of room for improvement in this year’s Tempus Ten. After a slow start during the first quarter, the portfolio has lost further momentum over the past three months.

...The biggest disappointment during the second quarter came from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which, having been up 9.7 per cent in the first three months of the year, is now showing a 2.9 per cent loss. The culprit is Avandia. A study published in May by The New England Journal of Medicine argued that the bestselling diabetes treatment was linked to increased heart attack risk. That claim has sent prescriptions for Avandia, GSK’s second biggest drug, plunging. It has also brought into further question the longer-term success of the £130 billion merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham (SB) in 2001: not least, the fact that the three blockbuster treatments brought to the deal by SB – Augmentin, Paxil/Seroxat and Avandia – are those that have caused the combine, now valued at £74 billion, its biggest headaches.

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