Allergan looks to extend Botox's shelf life.

Scott Whitcup is looking to mine Botox.

The head of research and development at Irvine-based Allergan Inc. wants to find other uses for the drug maker's cash-cow wrinkle remover.

The process of generating new applications for Botox, which started before Whitcup took over as the company's executive vice president of research and development in July, has already yielded results. Last year, Botox was approved as a treatment for severe underarm sweating, and the manufacturer is working to get the drug approved as a treatment for migraines.

"It's really a therapeutic approach," Whitcup said. "It's more than just a medication--there have been well over 100 different potential uses of Botox that actually have been written about."

The laundry list runs from treating overactive bladders to benign prostate hypertrophy, a condition that comes with male aging.

The effectiveness of the drug as a migraine treatment was tested in court last year, when Irena Medavoy, wife of former Tri-Star Pictures Chairman Mike Medavoy, sued over side effects she said resulted from the treatments.

Medavoy claimed that the treatments with Botox, derived from the toxin that causes botulism, caused her to suffer severe muscle pain. breathing problems and fatigue. The use of Botox as a migaine treatment is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

A Los Angeles jury cleared Allergan and celebrity dermatologist Arnold Klein of wrongdoing in the case and last month an L.A. Superior Court judge rejected Medavoy's request for a new trial.

Despite some growing competition--Ireland's Elan Pharmaceuticals Plc has a potential rival product and Inamed Corp. and Mentor Corp., both of Santa Barbara, are working on Botox-type versions of their own--Allergan has some cushion in finding new uses.

"As you go down the road, researchers will find additional uses for Botox for non-cosmetic surgery areas," said David Anast, publisher of the Biomedical Market News in Costa Mesa. "That's the next frontier."

Through the first nine months of 2004. Allergan spent $256 million, or 21 percent of its revenue, on research and development. "In pharmaceutical companies, R&D is the life blood," Whitcup said.