Study Reveals Merck´s Maxalt Provides Relief for Women´s Migraine Related to Menstruation

A study was carried out and published in the journal Headache by Texas Headache Associates, San Antonio, involving 146 women who have migraine exclusively at menstruation, and 561 women with menstrually-related migraine and in which attacks may also occur at other times - one arm was treated with Merck & Co´s migraine tablet Maxalt (generically rizatriptan) and the other with placebo.

The women treated a single migraine attack of moderate to severe pain intensity.

According to the team, led by Dr Robert Nett, the percentage of patients reporting pain relief within 2 hours was significantly greater with rizatriptan than with placebo for both pure menstrual migraine (73 percent vs 50 percent) and menstrually-related migraine (71 percent vs 52 percent).

Rizatriptan also showed a numerically greater response for other measures of pain relief, Nett and colleagues have reported.

There were no serious adverse effects and no differences in adverse events between the two groups, "consistent with the safety profile previously reported for rizatriptan."

Merck´s Maxalt had sales of $ 252 million dollars in the first half of 2008, holding 12th place in Merck´s total sales of the semester.