GSK melanoma drugs add to tally of U.S. drug approvals

By Ben Hirschler and Bill Berkrot

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators have approved two new GlaxoSmithKline drugs for treating advanced melanoma, in the latest sign that companies are having more success getting novel medicines to market.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the green light to Tafinlar and Mekinist late on Wednesday, bringing the tally of new drugs approved by the U.S. agency so far this year to 13, compared with 11 at the same stage in 2012.

After 39 FDA approvals last year - a record only beaten in 1996 - the continuing healthy run-rate for so-called new molecular entities is fuelling investor hopes the industry may finally be pulling out of a long period of poor productivity.

The FDA approved the two GSK drugs to be used as single agents against melanoma - the deadliest form of skin cancer - and not in combination after the medicines delayed tumor growth in separate clinical trials.

GSK, however, hopes further trials now underway will prove there is an additional benefit from combining the treatments, potentially giving it an edge over Roche's rival melanoma medicine Zelboraf.

After decades with virtually no progress in the fight against advanced melanoma and little to offer patients facing a virtual death sentence, Tafinlar and Mekinist mark the third and fourth new drugs approved by the FDA for metastatic melanoma in the past two years.

The drugs are a further step forward in targeted cancer care and will be used in patients with a specific genetic profile - an approach that will limit the number of people who get them.

As a result, sales expectations for the two medicines are relatively modest and analysts, on average, predict annual global revenue of $371 million for Tafinlar by 2017, with Mekinist expected to sell $425 million by the same time, according to forecasts compiled by Thomson Reuters Pharma.

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GSK melanoma drugs add to tally of U.S. drug approvals