Tribute Pharma gains Canadian nod for migraine powder

Canada's Tribute Pharmaceuticals got the green light from Health Canada to market Cambia, a migraine-relief drug that uses Swiss drug delivery company Applied Pharma Research's patented water-soluble powder. Cambia is a buffered diclofenac potassium powder that dissolves in water, designed to provide rapid relief for migraine attacks.

In randomized clinical trials, Cambia's powder was found to treat many migraine symptoms, including pain, light sensitivity, sound sensitivity and nausea, Tribute said in a release. The drug also gave statistically significant relief within 30 minutes of ingestion. According to APR, the company's patented powder formula uses bicarbonate to allow for faster diclofenac potassium absorption into the bloodstream, making for a fast-acting drug.

Tribute, a subsidiary of Stellar Pharmaceuticals, said in a release that Cambia will be the only prescription non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug on the market with an indication for the acute treatment of migraines. The Canadian prescription migraine-relief market is valued at about $150 million a year, Tribute President and CEO Rob Harris said, and the company expects Cambia to carve out a significant chunk of those sales.

"We feel that Cambia represents a logical first-line prescription treatment choice for acute migraine, especially when over-the-counter medicines that offer some relief with milder forms of migraine pain fail, and where side effects or tolerability issues with the triptan class of drugs becomes a concern," Harris said in a statement.

Tribute plans to get Cambia on the Canadian market by the second half of this year. The company bought the Canadian rights to the drug from New Jersey-based Nautilus Neurosciences, which markets Cambia in the U.S.

Cambia received its FDA approval in 2009.

- read the release
- get more on APR's website