Now, a drug to prevent migraine

The first medicine designed to prevent migraines was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, ushering in what many experts believe will be a new era in treatment for people who suffer the most severe form of these headaches.
The drug, Aimovig, made by Amgen and Novartis, is a monthly injection with a device similar to an insulin pen. The list price will be $6,900 (Rs 4,69,352) a year, or $575 (Rs 39,114) a month, and Amgen said the drug will be available to patients within a week. The price applies to both a 70 milligram and a 140 milligram dose.
Current treatments include pills originally developed for epilepsy and wrinkle reducer Botox, but patients abandon them because they don’t help much or cause serious side effects.
Aimovig blocks a protein fragment, CGRP, that instigates and perpetuates migraines. Three other companies — Lilly, Teva and Alder — have similar medicines in the final stages of study or awaiting FDA approval.
“The drugs will have a huge impact,” said Dr Amaal Starling, a neurologist and migraine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. “This is an amazing time for my patients and for general neurologists treating patients with migraine.”
Millions of people experience severe migraines so often that they are disabled and in despair. These drugs do not prevent all migraine attacks, but can make them less severe and can reduce their frequency by 50 per cent or more. One in seven people worldwide experience migraines, among them 37 million Americans — as many as 20 per cent of women, and 10 per cent of men.
In clinical trials, people taking the new drugs reported no more side effects than those taking a placebo. The side effects over the long term and among people with chronic diseases remain to be determined.
“For now, they look fantastic,” Dr Stewart J Tepper, a professor at Dartmouth College, said of the new drugs.