Pfizer to buy migraine treatment maker for $11.6B

Pfizer is starting to put its COVID-19 cash influx to use by spending $11.6 billion to venture deeper into a new treatment area.

The New York vaccine and cancer drug maker said Tuesday it will use cash on hand to buy the remaining portion of migraine treatment developer Biohaven Pharmaceutical it does not already own.

Pfizer will pay $148.50 in cash for each share of Biohaven, which makes Nurtec ODT for treating and preventing migraines and has a nasal spray under development.

Pfizer Inc. brought in more than $14 billion in sales during the recently completed first quarter from its COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty and its new pill treatment for the virus, Paxlovid.

Most of that came from Comirnaty, which also rang up nearly $37 billion in sales last year. But revenue from Comirnaty, which Pifzer developed with BioNTech, is expected to fade in the coming years. Pfizer also faces the loss of patent protection for some key products in its broad portfolio over the next decade.

That includes Eliquis for preventing blood clots and strokes and the Prevnar 13 vaccine for preventing pneumonia and related bacterial diseases.

The company plans to have about $25 billion in sales by 2030 come from new business developments.

The deal announced Tuesday is a step in that direction. Pfizer currently has no migraine treatments. U.S. regulators approved Nurtec ODT — which stands for orally disintegrating tablet — for treating migraines in February 2020 and for preventing them about a year ago.

The drug is sold as Vydura in the European Union.

It brought in nearly $124 million in sales in the first quarter. Biohaven expects $825 to $900 million in product sales this year.