ADX10059 – another Migraine Drug in the Pipeline
A couple of weeks ago I mysteriously referred to a drug called ADX10059, but didn’t say much about it. So let’s take a quick look at another new migraine drug that is currently in the testing phase.
As I mentioned in the post The Latest on Tezampanel, a new Migraine Drug, ADX10059 also has to do with glutamate. You can read the previous post for more on the connection between glutamate and migraine, as well as various types of chronic pain.
The technical description of ADX10059: a metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 negative allosteric modulator. Wow! We won’t go into every detail of how it functions, except to say that it inhibits glutamate, though in a different way than Tezampanel.
Testing is still in the second phase. At the very least, the results so far show that ADX10059 is getting rid of migraine pain in some people, so there’s reason to continue with the testing.
As with Tezampanel, it is hoped that this drug will break into the migraine chain-reaction and "interrupt the migraine circuit". Keep an eye on these emerging drugs – they’re different than what has come before, and are opening up a new field of study for migraine and other types of chronic pain.
ADDEX Pharmaceuticals is testing ADX10059, and has a brief explanation of mGluR5 & migraine on their site. Expect to hear more about ADX10059 next year (2010).
31 March 2009 @ 9:43 am
Thanks for the heads’ up James – great to know about the new drugs – they sound like they have a lot of potential.
10 April 2009 @ 6:25 am
I really do think we’re heading into a new era of migraine treatment. Not quite there yet, but things are moving along!
18 January 2010 @ 6:37 pm
Addex to end development of the long-term use of ADX10059.
In our Phase IIa clinical trial in 129 migraine patients, significantly more of the patients who received ADX10059 than those who received placebo were pain-free two hours after dosing (see Fig. 4). ADX10059 had better pain improvement than placebo at all time points up to two hours.
The results of the study suggest that mGluR5 inhibition might play a role in migraine therapy. As a result Addex conducted further studies in migraine prevention to establish whether the compound has a role in this indication. However, data from study 206, a 3-month study in migraine, have shown liver toxicity and led Addex to end development of the long-term use of ADX10059.