Migraine Fighting Meds Show Promise

Two new experimental drugs designed to treat and prevent migraines have shown great promise in early testing, according to the preliminary findings of a pair of clinical trials.

The findings are scheduled to be presented Tuesday at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

According to a American Academy of Neurology (AAN) press release detailing the preliminary findings, both drugs are designed to be delivered intravenously.

According to the release, one of these drugs -- known simply as ALD403 -- which is delivered through IV, showed a 66 percent reduction in migraine attacks when taken as a preventative option. What's remarkable is that this drug was taken just once by patients suffering from chronic migraines at the start of the trail, yet the drug's preventative effects lasted for approximately five to eight weeks. Interestingly, control participants in this study, who were given a placebo, also saw a 52 percent reduction in migraine prevalence, suggesting that while the drug does good, migraine prevalence is at least in-part measured by a patient's own expectations.

Similarly, in a trail for the seconds drug called LY2951742-- one that is delivered through injection on a bi-weekly basis -- patients also saw 4.2 fewer migraine day-per-month at 12 weeks, marking a 63 percent decrease in  prevalence. Placebo takers, on the other hand, only saw a 43 percent decrease. However, this second drug came with some rare but noticeable adverse side-effects, such as upper-respiratory tract infections and abdominal pain that researchers are paying close attention to.

For now, both drugs appear to have been largely safe for patients and effective at what they set out to do.

David Dodick, MD, the author of both trial studies and a member of AAN explained in a AAN press release that these medications were designed to treat a condition that currently had no effective medication designed to serve as an effective preventative measure. In-fact, most current migraine medications consist of other drugs initially developed to treat other conditions.

"We're cautiously optimistic that a new era of mechanism-based migraine prevention is beginning," Dodick said in the release.

The findings are scheduled to be presented Tuesday at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and should be viewed as preliminary findings until they are published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The AAN press release was published on April 22.

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