New migraine drug works better than Imitrex: studies
Posted on: Wednesday, 5 April 2006, 18:10 CDT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An experimental migraine drug under review by U.S. regulators works better than industry leader Imitrex, according to research presented on Wednesday.
The drug, called Trexima, was developed by Pozen Inc. and will be produced and sold by GlaxoSmithKline Plc, which currently markets Imitrex, a migraine drug with sales of about $1.2 billion last year.
Two trials comparing Trexima, which combines Imitrex with the anti-inflammatory drug naproxen, showed that 57 percent to 65 percent of patients treated with the drug reported pain relief after two hours, compared with 50-55 percent of patients treated with Imitrex alone and 28-29 percent of patients given placebo.
After four hours, 72-78 percent of Trexima patients reported pain relief, compared with 61-66 percent for the Imitrex group and 37 percent of patients on placebo.
"We now have a better understanding of how a migraine develops in the brain ... A therapy that both inhibits inflammation and treats pain may address multiple mechanisms of migraine," Dr. Stephen Silberstein, professor of neurology at Thomas Jefferson University, said in a statement.
Side effects of Trexima included dizziness, nausea and tingling.
Results from the two trials involving more than 2,800 patients were presented at a San Diego meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to decided in June whether to approve sales of Trexima.
Source: REUTERS
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