Ubrelvy: Not the Silver Bullet, but Helping Many

Ubrelvy, generic name ubrogepant, is a migraine drug that was approved in the USA late 2019. We’re just now beginning to see how it’s working for real people in the real world.

Ubrelvy is an abortive medication, taken to stop a specific migraine attack when it hits. And so far, it’s doing as well as expected – actually, maybe better – for patients that have been taking it in everyday life.

Last month, Dr. Chia-Chun Chiang from the Mayo Clinic presented some preliminary findings at the American Headache Society Annual Meeting. Patients were asked to report on their use of ubrogepant 1 month to 3 months after it was prescribed. Here are some of the results from 57 patients:

So most patients, 66%, were either somewhat satisfied or very satisfied with ubrogepant.

Next, researchers looked at the goal of being pain-free within two hours. Now, you can take another dose after two hours if needed, but ideally you should have significant relief by then. In total, 27% reported that they had general relief in all their migraine attacks when they took ubrogepant. 73% had relief at least one time when they took it, and 32% were free from headache at two hours during at least one attack.

So, for most people it worked some of the time. But for 27%, it provided consistent relief.

The numbers sound a little more impressive when you realize that most of the patients in this study (81%) had chronic migraine. Now, this shouldn’t be your only treatment if you have chronic migraine, because you shouldn’t be taking it that often. But it says something that it was working for many patients who have a very serious migraine condition, and who have probably tried a number of other medications.

So the bottom line is that, so far, this medication does seem to be helping a lot of people. We’ll look forward to seeing more “real world results” in the months ahead.

via: Study collects real-world data on newly approved migraine treatments