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Allergans Botox For Headaches May Add Billion Dollars

Heavy Doses

by Brett Chase
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Sep 09 2009 2:10pm EDT

Headaches Are a Boon for Botox

Bad headaches could be a $1 billion business for the maker of Botox.

Results of a study to determine whether wrinkle remover Botox is effective treating migraine headaches will be reported at a medical conference tomorrow. If the study shows the treatment works better than existing drugs, Botox maker Allergan Inc. could add $1 billion in sales a year, according to analyst estimates reported by Bloomberg News. That would almost double the yearly sales of the product.

The treatment will still need to get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for that use, but the results of the human studies carry a lot of weight. Irvine, California-based Allergan already submitted study findings to a medical journal, Bloomberg reports.

The approval would solve another headache: falling sales for the wrinkle treatment. Botox sales are down this year as the sour economy depressed demand for cosmetic procedures. Sales of the treatment dropped 4 percent for the first six months of this year to $634 million.

Brett Chase covers health care for Portfolio.com and writes the blog Heavy Doses.
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