Amgen on Wednesday announced that Erenumab, the chronic migraine prevention drug that it has been developing in association with Novartis, has seen positive results.

Specifically, the experimental drug met the stated objective of a midstage study by decreasing the number of monthly attacks compared with a placebo.

"These positive results are exciting because they add to the growing body of evidence supporting Erenumab for the prevention of migraine. We look forward to Phase 3 episodic migraine data later this year," said Sean E. Harper, M.D., executive vice president of Research and Development at Amgen.

"Migraine is the sixth leading cause of disability worldwide,” added Harper.  

Migraine is characterized by a splitting headache, physical incapacitation and is often accompanied by nausea and vomiting.

In August 2015, Amgen began collaborating with Novartis to jointly research and develop path-breaking treatments for migraine and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).

“Amgen and Novartis look forward to discussing these results with global regulators. We believe that together with the Phase 3 episodic data that we expect in H2, the data could potentially support both chronic and episodic indications being granted, at least by some of the global regulators," said Kristen Davis, spokeswoman for Amgen.

Amgen, which began in 1980, is one of the world’s leading biotechnology companies.