Coming Soon: CGRP Antagonist Nasal Spray
This month the FDA in the USA approved the very first CGRP antagonist nasal spray, brand name Zavzpret. The drug is known as zavegepant. The new medication should be on the market as early as this July.
You may remember that the “gepant” medications, such as zavegepant, seem to be good abortives – taken during a migraine attack, they fight symptoms at the time (as opposed to preventatives, which of course prevent attacks).
People who would prefer to avoid injections and pills often go to nasal sprays. Many people like the speed of injections, but don’t like the injections themselves. And with migraine nausea, pills can be hard to take.
However, nasal sprays also tend to be very fast-acting. Zavzpret as a medication seems to be pretty fast-acting itself, which is good news for those who want to stop those migraine symptoms from escalating. The most recent study showed relief from pain as quickly as in 15 minutes.
Zavzpret is also very simple to use. It will probably be prescribed as one spray (into one nostril) of 10mg, once. That’s all.
Another advantage of Zaczpret is that there seem to be very few side effects. The most common (though still only a minority of patients experienced it) was a change in your taste – in other words, foods might taste a little funny. This was just temporary.
For more information on Zavzpret:
- US FDA approves Pfizer’s nasal spray for migraine (Reuters)
- Pfizer’s ZAVZPRET™ (zavegepant) Migraine Nasal Spray Receives FDA Approval (official press release)
- Safety, tolerability, and efficacy of zavegepant 10 mg nasal spray for the acute treatment of migraine in the USA (recent clinical trial)