GlaxoSmithKline has completed final stage testing of its experimental once-daily lung disease drug LAMA/LABA and will press ahead with plans to file for approval of the medicine in global markets from the end of 2012.
In a statement on Friday, the British drugmaker said a 52-week safety study, the last in a program of trials that also included four pivotal studies of the drug, was now complete.
GSK, which is developing the LAMA/LABA combination medicine with Theravance, said in July that it had showed positive results in four late-stage trials in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
"The full results of all these studies ... will be presented at future scientific meetings," the firm said.
LAMA/LABA is a combination of two molecules - umeclidinium bromide (UMEC), a long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA), and vilanterol (VI), a long-acting beta2 agonist (LABA), administered by a new dry powder inhaler.
GSK is working hard to develop next-generation medicines to become successors to its $8 billion lung drug Advair.
Advair and Pfizer's Spiriva currently dominate the respiratory drug market, but Swiss firm Novartis is also fighting the next-generation battle with its experimental combination drug QVA149, which some analysts are already tipping as a potential $5 billion-a-year seller.