LONDON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - GSK's experimental drug to treat chronic hepatitis B infection met the main goal in two closely watched studies, the drugmaker said on Wednesday, bringing the company a step closer to making a functional cure available to patients.
The positive data marks an early win for new CEO Luke Miels, who took over the reins from Emma Walmsley at the start of the year. Investors are counting on Miels to drive GSK to hit its annual revenue target of more than 40 billion pounds ($54 billion) by 2031.
An approval for the drug, bepirovirsen, which is expected to bring in more than 2 billion pounds in peak sales, could bring GSK closer to that goal. Analysts currently estimate overall sales to be at about 35 billion pounds in 2031.
The studies were evaluating the impact of bepirovirsen in patients who were either on or off existing standard therapy for chronic hepatitis B, or CHB.
In the studies, treatment with bepirovirsen resulted in a statistically significant and clinically meaningful functional cure rate, meaning the treatment was able to show sharp reductions in two key biological markers of CHB such that a test would not be able to detect them.
($1 = 0.7401 pounds)
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)