Teva and Heptares to develop treatments for migraines

Teva and Heptares Therapeutics have announced a partnership focused on the development of new migraine treatments.

The licensing and drug discovery agreement will see Teva receive exclusive global rights to develop, manufacture and commercialise novel, small-molecule calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) antagonists discovered by Heptares for the treatment of migraine.

Heptares will receive an upfront payment of $10 million (6.64 million pounds) plus research funding, and is eligible to receive additional milestone payments of up to $400 million, plus sales-based royalties.

CGRP is released during migraine attacks and is known to play a key role in triggering these incidents, so blocking CGRP activity is considered a promising therapeutic method.

Dr Michael Hayden, president of global research and development and chief scientific officer at Teva, said: "We are delighted to begin this partnership with Heptares which, through its industry-leading, structure-based design approach, has generated novel CGRP antagonists with significant promise for treating migraine."

This comes after the firm recently agreed to ally with University College London on a brain imaging study to find new neurodegenerative disease treatment approaches.