New drug may help prevent migraine for difficult cases

For the study, half of the participants took 60 milligrams of atogepant once a day as a pill and the other half took a placebo for 12 weeks.

Those taking the drug had an average of four fewer days with migraine per month from the start of the study to the end, while those taking the placebo had about two fewer days with migraine per month.

Those taking the drug also showed improvement compared to those taking the placebo in how often they needed to take medication to stop a migraine attack and in how many people had a reduction of 50% or higher in how many days per month they had migraines.

The most common side effects were constipation, which occurred in 10% of those taking atogepant and 3% of those taking the placebo, and nausea, which occurred in 7% of those taking the drug and 3% of those taking the placebo.

“People who thought they may not find a way to prevent and treat their migraines may have hope of finding relief with a tolerable oral easy-to-use drug,” Pozo-Rosich said. “This treatment was safe, well-tolerated and effective for people with difficult-to-treat migraine.”

A limitation of the study was the relatively short length of three months. Pozo-Rosich added that more research will be needed to assess the long-term efficacy and safety of atogepant.

Reference:

AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NEUROLOGY,MEETING: American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting