Novartis AG Smoker's Cough Treatment Beats GlaxoSmithKline's Advair in Trial

Patients taking Novartis AG (NOVN)’s experimental once-daily treatment for smoker’s cough showed a significant improvement in lung function over those on an existing medicine marketed by GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK), which is also developing a successor drug. Patients taking Novartis’s QVA149 were able to expel 100 milliliters (3.4 ounces) more air from their lungs in one second than those receiving Glaxo’s best-selling Advair after 26 weeks of treatment, according to a summary of data from a trial dubbed “Illuminate” to be presented at the European Respiratory Society annual meeting next week.

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