Studies have shown that about 19.6% of patients taking rimegepant for migraine relieved pain after two hours, compared with 12.0% in the placebo group.

Rimegepant, a drug in a new class of treatment for migraine, relieves pain and other symptoms in patients with moderate or severe migraine pain, studies have shown in the New England Journal of Medicine (July 11, 2019).

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, who produce the drug, evaluated 75 mg of placebo versus placebo in 1,186 men and women in a randomized, double-blind study.

Two hours after treatment, 19.6% of patients in the romegepant group reported that they were free from pain compared with 12.0% in the placebo group.

Freedom from the most unpleasant symptom, such as sensitivity to light or sound, was observed in 37.6% of the patients in the romegepant group and in 25.2% in the placebo group. Rimegepant was not found to outperform placebo in terms of freedom from nausea.

Nausea and urinary tract infection were the most common side effects in each group; adverse cardiovascular effects were not observed.

“These results confirm that the mechanism of action of rimegepant – blocking the peptide pathway associated with the calcitonin gene – effectively relieves pain and its associated symptoms during acute migraine attacks,” said lead researcher Richard Lipton, neurologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and lead author of the study.

Rimegepant is not yet licensed in the UK.