A drug to prevent migraines led to three fewer days a month with the crippling headaches in a late-stage test conducted by the pharmaceutical companies Amgen and Novartis. Though that may not seem like a lot of time, it means that people could have an extra 36 days a year without a migraine.
The drug, called erenumab, is part of a new class of medications that neutralize the activity of a chemical used by nerve cells to transmit pain signals when a migraine occurs. Based on the results, it could be submitted for approval in the US and Europe as soon as next year.
An extra 36 days a year without a migraine
Migraines — excruciating headaches that can last for days and impair a person’s life — affect 36 million Americans. That means about $20 billion a year in medical expenses and lost productivity. There’s no cure for migraines, and patients are often treated with drugs designed for other conditions, like hypertension and depression. These treatments work in only half the patients and often have terrible side effects. That’s why the new drugs, which are also being developed by several other pharmaceutical companies, are so promising.
In the latest clinical trial — the second study in the last of three phases typically required by the US Food and Drug Administration for marketing approval — patients were injected with erenumab once a month for six months. Before the trial, these patients experienced migraines about eight days a month on average. Once they were on the drug, those days with migraines decreased by an average of 3.2 to 3.7; patients in the trial’s placebo group also experienced a reduction, but only of 1.8 days. The new migraine drug’s most frequently reported side effects were upper respiratory tract infections and sinusitis.