J&J's Topamax helps alcoholics quit

What do you call a migraine drug that could help alcoholics quit drinking? A big-time marketing opportunity--if it weren't going off patent next year.

A new study shows that the Johnson & Johnson remedy Topamax, used in epilepsy and migraine, can help alcoholics stop craving liquor. The study was funded in part by the company, but it says it doesn't plan to seek FDA approval for its use against alcoholism. Doctors could prescribe it off-label, however.

J&J didn't put out a press release touting the research, perhaps because that could be construed as promoting the drug for an off-label use. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, will take care of that--with the help of all the attendant media attention. Including ours.

- check out the article from the Washington Post

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