Whatever Happened to Lasmiditan?

We last talked about Lasmiditan in 2012, with hopes that it would be on the market by now. But although a lot of money is being invested, and trials are still ongoing, it’s not likely we’ll see Lasmiditan for migraine until 2018 or later.

Lasmiditan is a migraine abortive and a serotonin receptor agonist, like triptans. But unlike triptans, it doesn’t seem to cause vasoconstriction – very important for those at risk of stroke and heart disease.

Lasmiditan is going to undergo phase III trials, further investigating the drugs ability to fight headache, nausea, photophobia and phonophobia. The company, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals, also has permission from the FDA to include some patients who have some cardiovascular risk factors.

Another future trial will be a pediatric study.

Lasmiditan remains a very promising migraine drug, which may be a major alternative to the familiar triptan medications. But we’ll probably be waiting until 2018 before most of us will have a chance to use it.

Read more about the development plan for Lasmiditan here.

For more, see Emerging therapeutic options for acute migraine: focus on the potential of lasmiditan