GlaxoSmithKline Melanoma Drugs May Steal Market From Roche

Two experimental skin cancer drugs from GlaxoSmithKline - each designed to block different pathways used by tumour cells - look set to steal a march on Roche's pioneering melanoma treatment Zelboraf, according to Citigroup. The brokerage, which raised its price target on GSK stock on Monday, forecast combined risk-adjusted annual sales for dabrafenib and trametinib of 1.5 billion pounds ($2.35 billion)by 2020, some three times consensus expectations. Dabrafenib, designed to work in patients with a mutation of a gene known as BRAF, and trametinib, which interferes with a protein known as MEK, have been shown in small-scale tests to curb melanoma with few side effects.

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