GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) Wednesday said it has received approval to sell non-prescription weight-loss product Alli, a key new growth driver for its consumer healthcare unit, in the European Union.

The world's second-largest pharmaceutical company plans to launch Alli in all 27 E.U. member states and Norway in the coming months.

Alli - which has been on sale in the U.S. since June 2007 as the only non-prescription weight-loss aid approved by the Food and Drug Administration - is the over-the-counter version of weight-loss drug Xenical, first launched in 1998 by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX). Compared with Xenical, Alli contains half the active ingredient.

Known generically as orlistat, it works by preventing fat in food from being absorbed into the body and can help a person lose 50% more weight than diet alone, according to GSK.

In the first nine months of 2008 Alli generated sales of GBP45 million.

Company Web site: www.gsk.com

-By Elena Berton, Dow Jones Newswires; 44 20 7842 9267; elena.berton@dowjones.com

Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.