Chia-Chun Chiang, MD: Variations in FDA Approved Migraine Medications

“Those new medications really give us a lot of options to a large population of patients with migraine. So, this is definitely very exciting.”

At the 2020 American Headache Society (AHS) Annual Meeting, Chia-Chun Chiang, MD, presented her latest research, “Real World Efficacy, Tolerability and Safety of Ubrogepant, Rimegepant, and Lasmiditan.” While the preliminary results for rimegepant and lasmiditan are still under analysis, the premise of her research speaks to the growing landscape of migraine treatments over the past decade.

Ubrogepant was FDA approved as a first-in-class oral calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) antagonist in December 2019, while 75-mg rimegepant was approved as an acute treatment of migraine in adults in early February this year. The third treatment, lasmiditan, is a selective serotonin 5-HT1F agonist approved for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults in October 2019.

Overall, the list of FDA approved migraine medications has seen steady growth in the past decade, allowing clinicians to have more options and choices for patient treatment. In an interview with NeurologyLive, the neurologist at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona, discussed the vast selection of migraine options, and how the positive impact it can have on clinical care.