Af­ter a years-long re­prieve, GSK is about to see My­lan’s gener­ic carve in­to its mega-block­buster Ad­vair fran­chise

And so it ends.

Af­ter mul­ti­ple de­lays, My­lan has won FDA ap­proval for a gener­ic ver­sion of Ad­vair, Glax­o­SmithK­line’s mega-block­buster asth­ma/COPD drug. 

This is not one of your run-of-the-mill sto­ries about gener­ics. 

Ad­vair has con­tin­ued to pump bil­lions in­to GSK long af­ter the patent ex­pi­ra­tion, help­ing to mask the phar­ma gi­ant’s deep prob­lems with R&D pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. CEO Em­ma Walm­s­ley brought in the renowned Hal Bar­ron specif­i­cal­ly to shake up the lack­lus­ter re­search arm of the com­pa­ny and get it point­ed at can­cer and oth­er dis­eases where the prospects of ma­jor re­turns — in the not-too-dis­tant fu­ture — are much, much bet­ter. 

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