High-Frequency Migraine Patients Benefit Less from New Drug

Given the relatively high cost of the new antibody treatment - a list price of $6,900 - clinical care at OHSU has focused on prescribing it for patients with incapacitating and frequent migraines. They hoped to reduce the number of headaches by at least half through once-monthly self-injections.

None of the high-frequency patients achieved a 50 percent reduction in headache frequency, although six patients reported a reduction of at least 25 percent.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Erenumbab in May of 2018.

"In a climate where financial constraint cannot be ignored, when possible use of new medications should be tailored as specifically as possible to limit waste of a finite resource," said Juliette Preston, M.D., director of the OHSU headache center and assistant professor of medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine.

Source: Eurekalert