AAN: Atogepant Efficacious for Preventive Treatment of Migraine

FRIDAY, April 21, 2023 (HealthDay News) — For adults with episodic migraine who have previously failed two to four classes of oral preventive medications, the oral calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonist atogepant is efficacious for preventing migraine, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, held from April 22 to 27 in Boston.

Patricia Pozo-Rosich, M.D., Ph.D., from the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues conducted a randomized placebo-controlled trial involving adults aged 18 to 80 years who previously failed two to four classes of conventional oral medications for migraine prevention and reported four to 14 monthly migraine days (MMD) during the 28-day screening period. Participants were randomly assigned to atogepant 60 mg once daily or placebo (154 and 155 participants, respectively).

The researchers found that across the 12-week treatment period, there was a significantly greater decrease in MMDs with atogepant versus placebo (−4.20 versus −1.85, respectively). Statistically significant improvement was seen in all secondary end points versus placebo across the 12-week treatment period. Constipation, COVID-19, nausea, and nasopharyngitis were the most commonly reported treatment-emergent adverse events in both groups.

“These results are exciting, as migraine can be debilitating, and this treatment led to fewer days with migraine for people who had already tried up to four other types of drugs to prevent migraine and either had no improvement or had side effects that outweighed any benefits,” Pozo-Rosich said in a statement.

The study was funded by AbbVie, the manufacturer of atogepant; several authors are employees of AbbVie.