Joshua Cohen, MD: Fremanezumab for Medication Overuse Headache

“Starting [patients] on fremanezumab as a preventive therapy right away actually may help them come off of those acute medications and stop overusing those acute medications.”

This year has welcomed the approval of an entirely new class of medicines for the treatment of migraine with the FDA clearing the use of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors like fremanezumab (Ajovy).

Although its approval was for the preventive treatment of migraine, due to the role CGRP plays in headache, fremanezumab’s usefulness appears to be extending beyond solely that. One of the impacts it has made has been in medication overuse headache—a common comorbidity in migraine that can truly lessen the quality of life for patients.

To glean some insight into what the potential impact fremanezumab could have in this area, NeurologyLive sat with Joshua Cohen, MD. at the American Neurological Association’s 143rd Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. The Global Medical Lead for Migraine and Headache at Teva Pharmaceuticals, the therapy’s developer, discussed its performance in patients with medication overuse headache.