AbbVie has announced a licensing agreement with Beijing-based Brise Pharmaceuticals, which will see the pair work together to progress and potentially commercialise a set of early-stage migraine drugs as part of a deal that was agreed two years ago.
As per the deal, AbbVie will pay up to $757m in development, commercial, regulatory and sales milestones for the exclusive rights to two preclinical-stage migraine programmes. Through this agreement, Brise will take the helm on all discovery efforts linked to the two drugs, while AbbVie will assume responsibility for their subsequent global development and commercialisation.
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While neither AbbVie nor Brise have shared any details on the programmes behind this deal, the companies did note that, if the therapies were to make it to market, Brise would be eligible to receive an unspecified portion of royalties on future sales.
At the core of Brise’s approach to migraine drug development is its research and discovery engine, which the biopharma company says integrates small molecules and targeted antibody therapeutics to “modulate complex pain pathways at the molecular level”.
According to Brise’s CEO, Guochun Li, the deal with AbbVie marks an “important validation” of this platform. On top of this, Li added that the agreement will allow the company to both boost the value of its discovery engine and invest in the next generation of innovative medicines.
Unusually, Brise shared the details of its agreement with AbbVie two years after the pair originally began collaborating – though it currently remains unclear why the parties have chosen to publicise this information now.
Addressing unmet needs in migraine
While researchers currently estimate that around 14% of the global population experience migraine, and several drugs are available to treat it, patients with the condition still often face significant unmet needs.
This is evidenced by the outcomes of a real-world analysis published in Headache, which found that current acute treatment approaches are failing to prompt adequate responses in at least 56% of American patients.
However, companies across the pharma and biotech landscapes are now exploring the potential of several mechanisms for the treatment of migraine.
According to GlobalData’s Pharmaceutical Intelligence Center, there are currently 67 ongoing clinical trials evaluating medicines for migraine.
One of these is Kallyope’s transient receptor potential melastatin 8 (TRPM8)-targeting therapy, elismetrep, which is currently in a pivotal trial as an acute treatment for migraine.
According to a report from GlobalData, the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology, the migraine market was valued at $17.2bn in 2023 across 68 markets.
