LONDON (Reuters) – A backlash against rising inequality — evident from the Occupy movement to the Arab Spring — risks derailing the advance of globalization and represents a key threat to economies worldwide, according to the World Economic Forum.

Severe income disparity and precarious government finances rank as the biggest economic threats facing the world, according to the group’s 2012 Global Risks report released on Wednesday.

The 60-page analysis of 50 risks precedes the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting in two weeks’ time in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, and paints a bleak picture of an increasingly uncertain world.

Over the past four decades, Davos, which brings together politicians, central bankers and business leaders, has become a byword for globalization. Now that confidence about the onward march of the global marketplace is faltering.

Rising youth unemployment, a crisis of retirement among pensioners dependent on debt-burdened states and a yawning wealth gap have sown the “seeds of dystopia,” according to the report, based on a survey of 469 experts and industry leaders.

For the first time in generations, people no longer believe their children will grow up to have a better standard of living.

“It needs immediate political attention, otherwise the political rhetoric that responds to this social unease will involve nationalism, protectionism and rolling back the globalization process,” said WEF managing director Lee Howell.

LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline will push ahead with filing its key new lung drug Relovair for regulatory approval in mid-2012, despite releasing a mixed batch of clinical trial results that disappointed some investors on Monday.

Although the new once-a-day inhaled treatment did not show superiority to GSK’s existing twice-daily drug Advair, Britain’s biggest drugmaker said the totality of the data gave it confidence about the medicine’s prospects.

The convenience of Relovair’s once-daily dosing should give it an edge, which GSK hopes will help it carve out billions of dollars in sales as a replacement for Advair, which has worldwide revenue of more than $8 billion a year.

But investors were underwhelmed by the details of the clinical studies and shares in GSK fell 3 percent by 1110 GMT, sharply underperforming a flat London stock market.

Mark Clark, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, said the data was “poor” and the failure to beat Advair in clinical outcomes would reduce Relovair’s commercial potential and GSK’s pricing power for the product.

“This means any advantage is limited to its once- versus twice-daily format,” he said.

Clark also believes GSK may now have trouble getting Relovair approved, since the results were inconsistent across trials and reports of fatal pneumonia in some of the studies were a potential concern.

LONDON (Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it planned to push ahead with filing its key new lung drug Relovair for regulatory approval in mid-2012, following the release of a mixed batch of clinical trials results.

Although the new once-a-day inhaled treatment did not show superiority to GSK’s existing twice-daily drug Advair, Britain’s biggest drugmaker said the totality of the data gave it confidence about the medicine’s prospects.

The convenience of Relovair’s once-daily dosing is expected to give it an important edge and GSK hopes it will carve out billions of dollars in sales as a replacement for Advair, which has worldwide sales of more than $8 billion (5 billion pound) a year.

But investors were underwhelmed by the details of the clinical studies and shares in GSK slipped 1.7 percent by 0815 GMT, underperforming a flat London stock market.

Relovair, which is being developed with U.S.-based Theravance (THRX.O: Quote, Profile, Research), will be filed for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the United States and Europe in the middle of the year.

It will also be submitted as a new treatment for asthma in Europe at the same time, while in the United States GSK will continue discussions with regulators on its use in asthma.

If all goes well, industry analysts believe Relovair should reach the market in 2013 and consensus forecasts point to sales of $1.88 billion by 2016, according to Thomson Reuters Pharma.