HOUSTON – Clinical trials on a drug that prevents migraines are showing promising results.
Researchers are testing an antibody that basically attacks the molecule that causes migraines.
Bianca Harris’ migraines started two years ago. She gets them five days a week.
“I’m lucky; sometimes it doesn't come on for like an hour and kind of fools me for a little bit. But yeah, they’re always there,” Harris said.
She is a patient of Dr. David Kudrow, the director of the Neurological Research Institute of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Harris is eagerly awaiting the results of a clinical trial focusing on ALD 403, an antibody targeting a peptide that triggers migraine pain. The treatment is given in the form of an IV every three months.
“The studies that have been reported so far show that it is effective in reduction of frequency, intensity, duration of migraines, and it reduces the amount of medication that patients will need acutely to treat their migraines,” Kudrow explained.
The most recent results show that 33 percent of the patients taking the higher dose of the drug report a 75 percent reduction in their number of migraine days.
“It would be wonderful if I could just go back to having a normal life and be productive and not have to worry about if I’m out doing something, if I am going to have a terrible headache,” Harris said.
She has high hopes for the drug, because nothing else has worked for her.
Alder Biopharmaceuticals is about to enter the final phase of testing before going to the FDA for approval. It is one of four pharmaceutical companies developing a drug to prevent migraines.
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