New Migraine Drugs in the Pipeline

A raft of new migraine drugs are on the horizon, thanks to new genetic research and other lines of scientific inquiry that are unlocking some of the mysteries surrounding the cause — and remedies — for the sometimes-debilitating headaches.

Several companies are testing a new class of migraine drugs target a chemical known by its initials, CGRP, that researchers believe is involved in the brain’s pain-signaling during migraines, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Millions of migraine sufferers would benefit from better medicines, because existing drugs don’t work for all patients, researchers note.

“Finally a new era seems to be emerging,” says David Dodick, director of the migraine program at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, president of the International Headache Society and chairman of the American Migraine Foundation.

“We know enough about the biology and what’s happening in the brain during an attack that some new medicines are being specifically developed for migraines.”

The foundation notes 36 million Americans suffer from migraines, intense headaches often marked by throbbing pain, sensitivity to light, and nausea.

To prevent migraines, sufferers avoid lifestyle triggers, such as wine or skipped meals. And they may regularly take medicines like an ibuprofen painkiller, the blood-pressure drug propranolol or the epileptic-seizure medicine topiramate.

But new CGRP drugs, which have emerged from genetic research that has identified some genes that play important roles in roles, could revolutionized treatment be available as early as 2018, researchers say.