Positive Ph III data for GSK ITP drug

UK drug major GlaxoSmithKline reported positive safety and efficacy results from the RAISE trial, a Phase III study of Promacta (eltrombopag) in adults with chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura who had received one or more prior ITP therapies.

Patients receiving the drug were eight times more likely than those on placebo to maintain platelet counts between 50,000 to 400,000/microliters during a six-month treatment period, thereby reducing bleeding symptoms and the need for concomitant and rescue ITP treatments, according to data presented at the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in San Francisco.

"Promacta is the first approved agent to show that generating platelets can be achieved and maintained with an oral therapy," said Paolo Paoletti, senior vice president of oncology R&D at GSK.