Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA) head to head trial data shows superior tolerability profile than Topamax (topiramate) in the treatment of migraine.- Allergan

Allergan plc has announced new head-to-head data from an open label study in Chronic Migraine in 282 patients, demonstrating that Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA) had a more favorable tolerability profile than Topamax (topiramate). Of patients randomized to receive topiramate, 50.7% of patients discontinued treatment due to adverse events, compared to 3.6% of patients randomized to receive onabotulinumtoxinA. Findings also show a significantly higher number of patients reported at least a 50% reduction in headache frequency when treated with onabotulinumtoxinA, compared to those treated with topiramate (40.0% vs 12.0%, p<0.001). These data, from the multi-center, prospective, open label FORWARD study, were presented for the first time today at the 18th Congress of the International Headache Society in Vancouver, Canada.

OnabotulinumtoxinA was generally well tolerated with 45.5% of patients reporting an adverse event (reported by more than 5% of any treatment group), the most common being sinusitis and neck pain – reported by 5.5% and 4.5% of patients, respectively. This compares with 76.8% of patients in the topiramate group, with paraesthesia, nausea and fatigue being the most common adverse events – reported by 31.0%, 13.4% and 13.4% of patients, respectively. Cognitive disorder was also reported in 12.7% of patients randomized to receive topiramate, compared to 0.5% of patients receiving onabotulinumtoxinA.