Results from the phase 3b LIBERTY trial of the investigational migraine-prevention drug erenumab indicate its potential effectiveness in patients with episodic migraine attacks who have unsuccessfully tried other migraine-prevention drugs to reduce the frequency of migraine days.
Erenumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody that is designed to block the calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor, reduced the average number of monthly migraine headaches by half or more for 30% of study participants, which is a level of improvement that “can greatly improve a person’s quality of life,” first author Uwe Reuter, MD, of Charité–University Medicine Berlin said in a press release. Dr. Reuter will present the full results of the study during the Emerging Science Platform Session at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Los Angeles on April 24.
laflor/gettyimages
At 3 months, patients treated with erenumab significantly more often met the study’s primary endpoint of the proportion of patients achieving a 50% or greater reduction in mean monthly migraine days (MMDs) during weeks 9-12: At week 12, 30% on erenumab vs. 14% on placebo (odds ratio, 2.73; 95% confidence interval, 1.43-5.19) met the endpoint.