Alli is off to the races in Europe, where it is generating high sales since launching in April, GlaxoSmithKline says.

The orlistat 60 mg product is seeing "sustained demand through the subsequent weeks of performance," GSK CEO Andrew Witty said July 22 during the firm's fiscal 2009 second-quarter earnings call.

Alli garnered 56 million British pounds in European Union sales ($92.1 million under the July 22 exchange rate) during the April-June period. Even U.S. alli sales rose 12 percent to $41.1 million in the quarter, GSK reports in a same-day release.

U.S. sales of alli plummeted 53 percent to $139 million in fiscal 2008 after a wildly successful June 2007 launch. GSK plans to introduce the drug to markets outside the U.S. and Europe in the third quarter (¹ Also see "GSK Invests In Consumer Unit To Overcome Generic Threat, Low Alli Sales" - Pink Sheet, 9 February, 2009.).

Witty discussed the strategy behind the U.K. company's consumer business, which experienced 9 percent growth of worldwide sales to $1.92 billion. Global market growth during the same three-month timeframe increased only 1 percent, the firm said.

"Excellent marketing, constant innovation, making sure our products are front-of-shelf, geographic expansion of businesses we acquire, buy new businesses and take switches every few years from other companies or from GSK labs," he said. "You've seen all of that been applied."

GSK said in its earnings release that consumer brand innovations launched in the last three years comprised sales of more than $164.7 million in the quarter.

The company's U.S. consumer segment sales expanded 3 percent during the second quarter to $418.4 million.

Over the first half of 2009, GSK consumer health grew 5 percent to $843.3 million in the U.S. and 7 percent to $3.8 billion globally.

Witty highlighted the company's oral care segment, which shot up 10 percent to $116.9 million in U.S. sales during the second quarter, and includes five of the top 10 U.S. toothpaste stock-keeping units.

"That's because we've innovated our products and we advertise our products at the right level," he explained.

The Sensodyne toothpaste franchise increased its U.S. sales 20 percent in the quarter to $37.9 million, though sales of Aquafresh products dropped 6 percent to $34.6 million.

Biotene stood out in the U.S., growing 26 percent during the second quarter while the mouthwash category contracted 1 percent, Witty said. GSK acquired the mouthwash from Laclede in October 2008 as part of its aggressive strategy for acquiring bolt-on brands (² Also see "GSK Plans To Wield Aggressive Bolt-On Acquisition Strategy" - Pink Sheet, 26 January, 2009.).

The firm's acquisition of Stiefel Laboratories, which closed July 22, is expected to add $450 million to $500 million to GSK's U.S. business, Witty said (³ Also see "Glaxo Augments OTCs With Stiefel Deal, Gains Strong Dermatology Foothold" - Pink Sheet, 27 April, 2009.).

Purchasing Coral Gables, Fla.-based Stiefel for $2.9 billion will allow GSK to combine a specialty dermatology firm with its own somewhat neglected dermatology operations, the CEO said.

GSK is the seventh-largest dermatology company in the world, though "we didn't really focus on" that part of the business before acquiring Stiefel, he added.

GSK's OTC dermatology products include Abreva cold sore treatment and Lactacyd feminine wash products sold in Europe.

Part of growing globally and successfully switching Rx products to OTC sale is also knowing when to say no, Witty said.

He explained that GSK passed on bidding to license OTC Prevacid (lansoprazole) because the proton pump inhibitor "will be a much tougher one to globalize" than alli, based on GSK's experience marketing heartburn drugs Zantac (ranitidine) and Tagamet HB (cimetidine).

"We've seen the performance of some of the other products. Frankly, it hasn't been quite as attractive a marketplace as some of our other options," he said.

Novartis licensed Prevacid 24HR from Takeda Pharmaceuticals and plans a U.S. launch in 2009 (⁴ Also see "Prevacid Initial Launch Efforts To Focus On Switching Prescription Users" - Pink Sheet, 16 May, 2009.).

-- Dan Schiff (d.schiff@elsevier.com)

GSK Upbeat On Alli In EU As Global Consumer Sales Show Healthy Gains

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