The FINANCIAL — Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. on September 1 announced that ZECUITY, the first and only patch system designed to provide relief from migraine, is now available by prescription through specialty pharmacies. ZECUITY is a single-use, disposable patch system that delivers sumatriptan through the skin. The device is designed to be worn for a four-hour period either on the upper arm or thigh.
Approximately 36 million people in the United States suffer from migraine and its various characteristics. According to the American Migraine Study II, 85 percent of respondents experience throbbing pain, 80 percent experience sensitivity to light, 76 percent experience sensitivity to sound and 73 percent experience nausea.
“Migraine sufferers experiencing nausea as part of their migraine may delay or avoid treatment and may seek non-oral treatment options,” said Dr. Michael Hayden, President, Global R&D and Chief Scientific Officer. “At Teva, we are committed to delivering innovative treatments that improve patient care and are proud to offer ZECUITY to people looking for a different route to migraine relief.”
In a clinical study, at two hours following application, significantly more patients using ZECUITY versus a non-medicated patch system reported, as the study’s primary endpoint, no headache pain (18 percent versus 9 percent). The secondary endpoints of the study showed that, at two hours following application, significantly more patients reported no nausea (84 percent versus 63 percent), no sensitivity to sound (55 percent versus 39 percent), no sensitivity to light (51 percent versus 36 percent), or headache pain relief (53 percent versus 29 percent). The most common side effects reported for ZECUITY included pain, tingling, itching, warmth, discomfort or a change in the skin color at the application site of ZECUITY, according to Teva.
In conjunction with the availability of ZECUITY, Teva is launching Migraine Support SolutionsSM to provide migraine education and assistance with ZECUITY including a special offer that could save patients money on their prescriptions.
ZECUITY is a prescription medicine used for the acute treatment of migraine headaches with or without aura in adults. ZECUITY is used for people who have been told by a healthcare provider that they have migraine headaches. ZECUITY is not used to prevent or decrease the number of migraine headaches you have.