3. It’s not all about wrinkles
3. It’s not all about wrinkles
About half of current Botox sales are noncosmetic; approved uses also include the treatment of eye-muscle disorders and excessive underarm sweating. Pyott believes growth will lean more and more toward therapeutic applications. Already many physicians use Botox to treat ailments including muscle spasms, and chewing and swallowing problems. Botox is a gold mine with rich veins still to be unearthed, Pyott contends, and he plans to keep digging. The company is pursuing so many new uses for the drug that The New York Times recently dubbed Botox “medicine’s answer to duct tape.”
Two of the emerging markets for Botox, Pyott believes, will be the treatment of incontinence and migraine headaches, for which he’s hoping to get regulatory approvals within the next few years. That would please Nancy Stephens, an administrator in dermatologist Silverberg’s office, who receives off-label Botox injections in the back of her head and neck to relieve the debilitating pain of migraines she has suffered for years. “It’s saved my life,” she says.
Analysts agree that Botox has plenty of untapped growth, though just how much remains is unclear. Napodano, of Zacks Investment Research, sees annual worldwide Botox sales topping out at $1.6 billion; Collins Stewart analyst Chen thinks they could reach $1.8 billion by 2014. Those are numbers any pharmaceutical executive would envy; nonetheless, at some point Allergan’s growth will have to come from somewhere else. That’s why …