TWO life-saving drugs of the future are to be produced in Teesdale.

Drugs group GlaxoSmith-Kline yesterday unveiled a range of drugs to treat heart disease, cancer and breathing disorders that it said could become "blockbusters".

Among them was a next generation asthma treatment that the company hopes will be approved for public sale in 2006. The drug will replace the Flixonase asthma treatment and has shown evidence of greater potency and the potential for once-daily dosing.

That, along with a sterile vial product, will form the backbone of future production at GSK's Barnard Castle plant, where it employs 1,170 people.

The Teesdale plant has been given a new role within the global group.

It is one of nine manufacturing sites placed in a New Product and Global Supply Group division that will bid against one another to produce the drugs of the future.

That will give it scope to add other drugs to its production.

A spokesman for the plant said: "This puts the site in a strong position to bid for products from GSK's pipeline which Jean-Pierre Garnier (chief executive) yesterday described as being broad and deep, with innovative medicines across a spectrum of key therapeutic areas'."

GSK yesterday revealed 82 new products, 45 extensions of existing product lines and 20 vaccines at a research and development presentation to investors.

It said the drugs were part of an overall programme of 147 projects under clinical development that included "a number of pioneering approaches to treating patients in need".

It expects to have a record number of filings for regulatory approval during the next five years.

The research and development day did little to convince the City of GSK's ability in the short term to improve on its current £22bn sales each year.

Anthony Platts, assistant director of Wise Speke, said: "GlaxoSmithKline is a very large company, with a market capitalisation of around £78bn. Its research and developments costs are enormous and these costs need to be covered by producing big selling drugs.

"The City, while impressed with the sheer scale of projects in clinical development, is anxious to see the next generation of blockbuster drugs hitting the market sooner rather than later and marked the shares down as a result.

"Glaxo has a temporary hole in its earnings until these new drugs start selling. This is especially important as patent protections on existing blockbusters expire and the generic competition threatens to steal market share. The future looks potentially very rosy, however."

By the close of trading, GlaxoSmithKline shares had fallen by one per cent, or 19p, to finish at 1311p.