Germany's Bayer AG
said on Friday studies had shown its century-old Aspirin drug was as effective
against migraine headaches as a newer, standard therapy sold by GlaxoSmithKline.
The German chemicals and pharmaceuticals firm said an independent study on
312 patients by doctors in Italy, Spain and Germany showed that two 500 mg
Aspirin Migraine tablets reduced pain after two hours as effectively as 50 mg of
sumatriptan, the ingredient in Glaxo's Imigran.
It said headaches were less severe or had disappeared completely in over half
the patients who took Aspirin, and results were similar with sumatriptan and 400
mg of another painkiller, ibuprofen.
A second study found Aspirin and sumatriptan had similar effectiveness in
relieving migraine symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light
and noise.
Details of the study will be released at a poster session at the
International Headache Conference in Rome this weekend, and the study will be
published later this year.
Bayer started selling Aspirin Migraine in 2000. Aspirin and ibuprofen can be
purchased over the counter while Imigran is a prescription product.
Aspirin, which has traditionally been used to treat pain, fever and
inflammation, and more recently as a preventive in heart attacks and strokes, is
one of the most versatile and successful drugs in history.
Its active ingredient, acetyl salicylic acid, was synthesized in the
laboratory for the first time by a young Bayer chemist, Felix Hoffmann, in 1897.
Aspirin works by inhibiting the production of chemicals called prostaglandins
in the body, so diminishing the body's response to a chain of chemical processes
that leads to pain.
Sumatriptan was the first of a relatively new class of drugs called triptans
that work by attaching to serotonin receptors on blood vessels and nerves. This
constricts the blood vessels, bringing about a reduction in inflammation.
