Ab­b­Vie preps a chal­lenge to a ri­val mi­graine drug from Bio­haven, spelling out an up­beat set of PhI­II da­ta

Phase III ad­vance tri­al da­ta for Ab­b­Vie’s mi­graine pre­ven­tion drug ato­gepant look good — but are the re­sults good enough to ri­val Bio­haven’s two-in-one treat­ment and pre­ven­tion drug, rimegepant, sold as Nurtec?

Ab­b­Vie picked up ato­gepant from Al­ler­gan in a $63 bil­lion buy­out last year. It al­so claimed the Botox fran­chise and $16 bil­lion in an­nu­al rev­enue.

Vamil Di­van, an eq­ui­ty re­search an­a­lyst with Mizuho Fi­nan­cial Group, said ato­gepant and rimegepant are “nat­ur­al com­peti­tors”: two oral drugs that could hit the mar­ket around the same time. Nurtec took the lead with FDA ap­proval in Feb­ru­ary. Ato­gepant met pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary end­points in piv­otal Phase III test­ing, and Illi­nois-based Ab­b­Vie is push­ing for reg­u­la­to­ry sub­mis­sions in the US and abroad.

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