4 ms·
The title is misleading, as other medications have been used for migraine prophylaxis. This is the first drug, per the article, that has been specifically appro
by epmaybe 8y ago
The title is misleading, as other medications have been used for migraine prophylaxis. This is the first drug, per the article, that has been specifically approved for migraine prophylaxis. Medications such as beta blockers and valproic acid are other medications used for migraine prophylaxis but were originally approved for other conditions.
Additionally, please note that this drug has already been approved in the US, since May.
Now, onto the meat of this. If I'm not mistaken, erenumab is a cgrp inhibitor that made much fanfare a few months ago in New England Journal of Medicine when two studies found a clinical benefit in cgrp.
Basically healthcare providers are prescribing this if you failed the aforementioned therapies for migraine prophylaxis (since those are way cheaper).
On a funnier note, medical students such as myself have started referring to all of these new biologic drugs as "what-the-f*-umabs" since they all have weird names and we can't keep up with the rapid development of them.
- jensvdh 8y agoAs someone suffering from multiple auto-immune diseases, I love the "biologic era". I'm currently taking Cosentyx and it's been life-changing. More and more the treatment goal of my condition is becoming sustained drug-induced remission.
- epmaybe 8y agoI totally agree. A drug development timeline of 6-7 years from start to regulatory approval is a pretty dramatic shift from previous eras and can better target your specific problem. On the other hand, however, you then run into rapidly increasing costs for medication, which isn't going to be sustainable in the long run. Maybe the economies of scale will bring that cost down, but I'm no expert on that.
- smnplk 8y agoWould Cosentyx also help bring Hashimoto thyroid disease into remission ?
- epmaybe 8y agoPotentially, as there is some evidence that Hashimoto's has some increased interleukin 17a (what cosentyx targets). However, it was my understanding that Hashimoto's is something that could be treated long term with thyroid hormone supplementation (synthroid, etc).
- Someone 8y ago"what-the-f-umabs“* They have similar name endings because of naming conventions. umab indicates a human monoclonal antibody. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomenclature_of_monoclonal_antibodies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomenclature_of_monoclonal_ant..., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_nomenclature#List_of_drug_name_stems_and_affixes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_nomenclature#List_of_drug...
- epmaybe 8y agoWe know the naming conventions and can consult the nomenclature as needed, this is more tongue-in-cheek.
- jdietrich 8y agoValproate is far from ideal, because it's massively teratogenic. Migraine is far more prevalent in women, so erenumab could become very useful when it goes off patent.