Makiko Kitamura

GlaxoSmithKline’s recent setbacks, including a corruption probe in China, are being outweighed by what will probably be the highest number of new drug approvals in the U.S. this year. Glaxo (NYSE: GSK) and partner Theravance Inc.’s lung drug Anoro this week won the backing of a U.S. advisory panel, which augurs regulatory approval by December. A nod for Anoro by the Food and Drug Administration would be Glaxo’s fifth this year. It’s unlikely any other major drugmaker globally will come close, said Sam Fazeli, an analyst at Bloomberg Industries in London. The stock has gained 21 percent this year,...

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) is applying Shinya Yamanaka’s Nobel Prize-winning discovery in stem cells to identify heart risks linked to experimental drugs earlier in the development process. Yamanaka was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine this month for his work in turning ordinary skin cells into induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells with the potential to become any cell in the body. That breakthrough has enabled the London-based drugmaker to create heart-muscle stem cells that may be used to test compounds for cardiovascular safety, said Jason Gardner, head of Glaxo’s early-stage regenerative medicine research. About half of all experimental drugs...