New Medications for Migraines

Currently there are four pharmaceutical companies working to develop medications that are specifically designed to treat migraines.  This way migraine sufferers won’t have to take something like heart medication to treat their migraines and then have to worry about the side effects of taking a medication for a condition you don’t have. 

The four companies working on the new drugs, Alder BioPharmaceuticals, Amgen, Eli Lilly and Teva, are all developing slightly different antibodies, administered at different times.  Meaning some are monthly injections, some are injections given every 3 months and others are in pill form. 

Most of these companies are in stage three of their clinical trials and so far they are getting very good results and the medications are showing little to no side effects.  The down side to the new medications is they are made from living cells which makes them very expensive to produce.  They are estimated to cost anywhere between $8000 and $20,000 a year which means insurance companies aren’t going to be jumping up to pay for them.  Which means they will want you to exhaust all other options as well as meet other qualifying factors before they will even consider covering any of the cost for these new medications.  Just like it is with Botox now. 

These new medications are expected to hit the market in 2019 (hopefully).  I am excited for the possibility the medications might bring and am happy there is hope but these meds are still 3 years out and when you’re in constant pain 3 years seems like an eternity.