Advantages of Fremanezumab Among CGRP Migraine Agents: Stephanie J. Nahas, MD

"You want to be conscious of polypharmacy and whether you could run into trouble with these drug-drug interactions, or by making another medical condition worse, which these monoclonal antibodies are unlikely to do.”

Over the past decade migraine specialists have been fortunate to have a toolbox of treatments at their disposal, most notably the anti-calcitonin gene-related peptides (CGRP) inhibitors, a relatively new class of medications. In 2018, the FDA approved the use of fremanezumab, an anti-CGRP inhibitor itself, for the prevention of migraine in adults.¹ Since then, there have been a number of studies that have displayed its efficacy in even greater detail.

At the 2021 American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting, April 17-22, Stephanie J. Nahas, MD, presented 2 abstracts that evaluated fremanezumab in this population. The first demonstrated that the treatment is efficacious in both moderate and higher frequency episodic migraine, while the second showed that the drug has a favorable cardiovascular (CV) safety profile in participants with a CV medical history or with multiple CV risk factors.^2,3

Nahas, an associate professor and director of the Headache Medicine Fellowship Program at Thomas Jefferson University, feels as though fremanezumab has a lot to offer among a treatment landscape that is ever-growing. She sat down with NeurologyLive to point out the significant differences in anti-CGRP agents and why the vast collection of data only further strengthens fremanezumab’s case.

For more coverage of AAN 2021, click here.

REFERENCES

1. Teva Announces U.S. Approval of AJOVYTM (fremanezumab-vfrm) Injection, the First and Only Anti-CGRP Treatment with Both Quarterly and Monthly Dosing for the Preventive Treatment of Migraine in Adults. News release. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd; September 14, 2018. Accessed April 22, 2021. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180914005613/en/Teva-Announces-U.S.-Approval-AJOVYTM-fremanezumab-vfrm-Injection.

2. Nahas S, Ning X, Cohen JM, Barash S, Campos VR, Silberstein SD. Efficacy of fremanezumab in patients with moderate and higher frequency episodic migraine. Presented at 2021 American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting. Abstract P10.046

3. Nahas S, Jurgens TP, Kessler Y, et al. Cardiovascular safety of fremanezumab in patients with migraine and cardiovascular medical history or risk factors: A pooled analysis of phase 3 studies. Presented at 2021 American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting. Abstract P10.034