Recent and updated pharmacotherapy of migraine

Atogepant for Migraine Prevention: A Systematic Review of Efficacy and Safety

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Atogepant is the latest calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) antagonist approved exclusively for prophylaxis of episodic migraine and is administered orally in doses of 10-60 mg/day. This article aims to provide a systematic review of the efficacy and safety of atogepant in migraine prevention.

METHODS

The literature was searched in different databases, i.e., the National Institute of Health clinical trials registry, PubMed, and the Cochrane library between 2018 to October 2021 using the keywords atogepant, MK-8031, and migraine. Conference abstracts listed in the Cochrane database (includes Embase) and drug information provided by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) label were also reviewed. Only English-language clinical trials were included. The authors retrieved 58 articles. Eventually, two randomized, double-blind, multicenter clinical trials involving 1,727 participants and one open-label trial were analyzed.

RESULTS

The FDA approved atogepant for migraine prevention in September 2021 based on two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials. Atogepant approved for migraine prevention acts as a CGRP receptor antagonist and is administered orally. Based on the 12-week clinical trials, atogepant was efficacious in prevention of migraine and it was well tolerated. The most common treatment-emergent adverse events were nausea, constipation, and upper respiratory infection.

RELEVANCE TO PATIENT CARE AND CLINICAL PRACTICE

Atogepant had a statistically significant change from baseline in monthly migraine days, monthly headache days, and acute medication use days.

CONCLUSIONS

Atogepant seems to be beneficial for migraine prevention, and it may be of more benefit in individuals who do not wish to take the drug as an injection or do not require a prolonged duration of drug effect. However, head-to-head trials with other CGRP antagonists are required to ascertain its place in migraine prevention.

Ditans vs Gepants: A Systematic Review and Indirect Network Meta-Analysis for Comparative Analysis of Efficacy and Safety

Background

An acute attack of migraine, incapacitates the migraineurs, and is widely prevalent. And to warden off its symptoms, recently two groups of drugs have been approved and launched.

Objective

The aim of this systematic review and indirect meta-analysis is to evaluate and summarize the effectiveness of these pharmacological interventions in managing the aforesaid disease.

Material and Methods

An extensive literature search was done through Cochrane library, Pub Med, clincialtrials.gov, for a period of 5 years (2015-2020), using key words: lasmiditan; ubrogepant; rimegepant; and acute migraine. Randomized double-blind phase III clinical trials, published in English language, were included which explored the efficacy and safety of these drugs. The outcomes of this meta-analysis included proportion of patients' headache, most bothersome symptoms free, and no disability at all at 2 h post-dose, with sustained pain freedom 2-24 h, and experiencing any adverse event. An indirect network meta-analysis was also conducted to determine the comparative effectiveness of these drugs.

Results

A total of seven RCTs involving 7266 patients were included. In general, the new drugs demonstrated better result in all the efficacy parameters. The adverse events were observed in treatment group compared to placebo. While in the indirect comparison, lasmiditan emerged to be superior in all the outcomes, except for sustained pain freedom 2-24 h (rimegepant was better). The adverse events were more with lasmiditan.

Conclusion

All the newer drugs have shown significant improvement in the outcomes analyzed. Lasmiditan appears to be superior among the newer drugs in efficacy; however it has more adverse effects.