The developers of one of the up-and-coming migraine drugs, Telcagepant, announced late last month that it was going to delay taking the drug to the FDA. It looks like the drug could be shelved – but will it be?
Financially, telcagepant was to be one of Merck’s new key drugs. But we’re talking about big money here – the potential to make a lot, or lose a lot, so no one seems to be sure what will happen next.
What happened? The trial involved taking telcagepant on a daily basis as a migraine preventative. Some of the patients experienced a problem – they started developing high levels of liver enzymes (transaminases). So the trial was scrapped.
But telcagepant isn’t just being investigated for preventative use, but also as an abortive. So now it looks like Merck will go ahead with trials in hopes that telcagepant can be used to stop a migraine attack once it starts. Obviously, doses were different and less frequent (only during attacks) when used as an abortive.
Still, do expect a delay. At this point Merck says nothing will be submitted to the FDA this year.
Whether or not the drug successfully continues to the market, it does represent a trajectory of research that is going on to find more scientifically current ways to treat migraine. This is not the only new drug on the horizon.
The original Merck report on telcagepant. To learn more about telcagepant, read What Everyone should know about Telcagepant – the coming Migraine Drug
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Actually, I’m glad to hear that the FDA isn’t allowing drugs to be rushed to market before there have been longer-term studies conducted. There are too many instances where drugs thought to be beneficial were later realized to be harmful. Nice article. It’s great to be kept up to date on meds — especially since my neuro doc likes to push them so much.
Personally, I’m stickin’ with Petadolex/Butterbur, CoQ10, and magnesium for now.
Yes, you’re right. Caution is important. The problem is that politics and money are also so often the factors – not caution on behalf of the patient. I hope caution and wisdom win out here – for the patient’s sake!