Fremanezumab reduces need for acute headache and migraine medication

Takeaway

• Patients with episodic migraine who received subcutaneous fremanezumab needed acute headache and migraine-specific medication less often than those who received a placebo and reported lower incidences of nausea or vomiting, photophobia, and phonophobia.

Why this matters

• These findings were observed with both a monthly and quarterly dose regimen.

Study design

• The phase 3 (HALO) randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial enrolled patients with episodic migraine.
• Patients received subcutaneous fremanezumab (225 mg monthly, n=290; 675 mg quarterly, n=291) or placebo (n=294) for 12 weeks.
• Funding: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Petach Tikva, Israel.

Key results

• Treatment with fremanezumab (monthly and quarterly, respectively) vs placebo reduced:
  • number of days of acute headache medication use (least-squares mean [LSM] change, −1.4 and −1.3; P_both<.001); and
  • migraine-specific acute headache medication use (LSM change, −2.2 and −2.2; P_both<.001).
• Migraine-associated symptoms reduced with fremanezumab (monthly and quarterly, respectively) vs placebo:
  • number of days with nausea/vomiting (difference: −0.7 [P<.001] and −0.5 [P=.031]);
  • photophobia (difference: −0.9 [P<.001] and −0.8 [P=.002]);
  • phonophobia (difference: −1.0 [P<.001] and −0.6 [P=.009]).
• Rates of severe adverse events (AEs), serious AEs, and AEs leading to discontinuation were similar across treatment groups (≤2%).

Limitations

• Prespecified exploratory analyses.

Coauthored with Chitra Ravi, MPharm