Christopher Gottschalk, MD: Long-Term Safety in Preventive Migraine Therapies

“Now we have the ability to say, ‘here’s a package that will reduce the frequency for attacks and reduce the need for these other drugs, which work, but you need to be careful with how much you use them…’ That’s a terrific deal. That’s saying you can use the right drugs when you need them.”

In the past year, 3 new preventive migraine treatments—the anti-calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors—have come to market, and a fourth, eptinezumab, is hopefully on the way. Meanwhile, as more data is collected on the CGRP inhibitors, a number of acute CGRP targeting monoclonal antibodies—the gepants—have been moving up the clinical development ladder.

With so much on the horizon for the treatment of migraine, the future looks bright. However, with the migraine specialist’s arsenal increasing drastically in size, questions arise about dosing, subgroup efficacy, medication pairing, and much else. To discuss what’s been uncovered about these CGRP inhibitors now that long-term safety data is available, NeurologyLive^® spoke with Christopher Gottschalk, MD, director, headache medicine, and chief, general neurology, Yale Medicine, at the 2019 American Headache Society (AHS) Annual Meeting, July 11-14, 2019, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Gottschalk shared his insight into the safety profiles of these medications, and what the lack of concern there means for how often these drugs can be prescribed. As well, he discussed how he envisions the treatments may be utilized in clinical practice going forward.

For more coverage of AHS 2019, click here.