New long-term safety and efficacy data highlights the medication’s capabilities in allowing patients to maintain fewer migraine days over a period of five years.
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It has been two years since Amgen and Novartis won regulatory approval for Aimovig as the first anti-CGRP migraine treatment. New long-term safety and efficacy data highlights the medication’s capabilities in allowing patients to maintain fewer migraine days over a period of five years.
This weekend, Amgen presented five-year Phase II data in episodic migraines at the Migraine Trust Virtual Symposium. The data showed that the anti-CGRP medication helped patients achieve sustained reductions in monthly migraine days. There was an average reduction of 5.3 monthly migraine days from a baseline of 8.7 days, Amgen said. Additionally, the mid-stage data also showed Aimovig (erenumab-aooe) helped patients reduce the use of acute migraine-specific medication (AMSM), such as triptans. The reduction in the use of AMSM was 4.4 days, down from the baseline of 6.2 days, the company said.
The safety profile of Aimovig remained consistent, the company noted.
Migraines impact about 12% of the population in the United States, including children. The pain and other symptoms associated with migraines can cause sufferers to completely stop what they are doing and prevent them from working or functioning in a normal capacity for more than a day. Episodic migraine sufferers typically deal with four to 14 migraine days per month.
Aimovig was the first of the anti-CGRP (calcitonin gene-related peptide) medications approved to treat migraines. The medication directly blocks the CGRP ligand, which is a well-identified migraine target.
Darryl Sleep, head of Global Medical and chief medical officer of Amgen, said the study shows that Aimovig continues to have the longest safety and efficacy trial data among treatments for migraine in the calcitonin gene-related peptide class of medications.
“Many people with this debilitating neurological disease live in dread of the next attack. As the first FDA-approved treatment and most prescribed preventive therapy in this class, Aimovig continues to be at the forefront of preventive migraine treatment and clinical research. These long-term results further demonstrate the potential of Aimovig to help the millions of patients who may be candidates for preventive treatment,” Sleep said in a statement.
Messoud Ashina, a professor of neurology in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen and a trial investigator, said the Phase II data presented at the conference reinforces the potential of Aimovig to reduce monthly migraine days over the long term. Because migraines can be so debilitating, Ashina noted that a significant reduction in migraine-associated pain is important in improving quality of life.
