THE WORLD Madrid

Madrid

Updated Thursday, February 22, 2024-10:32

Pfizer announces that its oral anti-migraine medication rimegepant (

Vydura

), the

only one indicated for the prevention and treatment

of attacks in adults, is now available in Spain.

Rimegepant is approved for the acute treatment of migraine, with or without aura, and for the treatment of episodic migraine in patients who experience

at least four migraine attacks per month

.

Jesús Porta-Etessam, head of Neurology at the San Carlos Clinical Hospital and president of the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN), explains that "migraine

is a very specific neurological disease

, which significantly affects the lives of people who suffer from it." suffer from it, however, there is the paradox that it is a pathology surrounded by a lot of misunderstanding and tends to become trivialized.

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Patients,

in addition to dealing with the disease, do so with the stigma

.

This is how Porta-Etessam argues: "On the one hand, gender, since it has an especially high prevalence among women; but, on the other, the fact that it is a disease that occurs through crises, when the patient does not have pain, tends to to have a supernormal life, that is, he makes a special effort to do everything that he cannot do during the migraine and this causes his family, social and work environment to tend to downplay its importance.

How does this new anti-migraine drug work?

This medication is a calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist.

It works

by inhibiting pain signaling

, vasodilation without active vasoconstriction, and neurogenic inflammation.

It is available in the form of oral lyophilisate.

"The data show that there are things we can improve in the clinical approach and in the solutions we give to our patients," insists the neurologist.

The search for therapeutic options to deal with this disease "is important for these patients, both in acute and preventive treatment, to reduce the frequency, severity and duration of crises," adds Porta-Etessam.

The company reports that the drug reduces pain during the first 2 hours after administration, and provides

sustained relief for up to 48 hours

without the need for rescue medication.

In its indication as a preventive treatment, the overall average

reduction in days is 6.2 days

with respect to the beginning in the number of migraine days per month, according to the results of

Study 305

with 203 patients treated with the drug for 16 months .

Is the drug financed?

The drug

is funded for the preventive treatment

of patients with between 8 and 14 days of moderate to severe migraine/month and three or more failures of previous treatments used at sufficient doses for at least 3 months.

However, it is not reimbursed by the national health system as an abortifacient, for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura.

How many people in Spain suffer from this type of headache?

Migraine affects more than 1,000 million people in the world and 4 million in Spain.

80% are women between 20 and 40 years old.

It is the second cause of global

disability

and the first in women between 15 and 49 years old.

"Migraine is a very widespread disease in our society, which has a high impact on the lives of all those who suffer from it, but the figures show that there is a high percentage of patients who have not seen their needs met in terms of treatment and treatment, or who have chosen to stop the treatment due to the lack of results," says

José Chaves

, medical director of Pfizer Spain.