Rimegepant: Acute Treatment for Migraine Headaches

Abstract

Migraine headache treatment is quickly evolving. There have been three new acute migraine treatment options (i.e., lasmiditan, rimegepant, ubrogepant) and four new preventive migraine treatment options (i.e., erenumab, fremanezumab, galcanezumab, eptinezumab) released in the past 3 years. The new migraine treatments are focusing on pathways within the newly, better understood neurovascular hypothesis that further describes the pathophysiology of migraine headaches in more detail than before. The discovery of vasoactive peptides, such as calcitonin gene-related peptide, has led to the development of many of these migraine agents. Rimegepant is one of these newly approved agents for acute migraine treatment in adults with or without aura. Rimegepant has been found to decrease pain and symptoms associated with migraine attacks and is generally well-tolerated.

Lay abstract

Migraine headache treatment is quickly evolving. There have been three new fast-acting treatment options (i.e., lasmiditan, rimegepant, ubrogepant) and four new treatment options to preventive migraine headaches (i.e., erenumab, fremanezumab, galcanezumab, eptinezumab) approved for patient use in the past 3 years. The new migraine treatments are designed to target a new pathway to help treat patients suffering from migraine headaches. Researchers have discovered a new substance calcitonin gene-related peptide, within the body to specifically target to help treat or prevent a migraine headache. This article will focus on rimegepant, one of these newly approved agents for acute migraine treatment in adults. Clinical studies have found rimegepant decreases pain and symptoms related to migraine attacks and is generally well-tolerated.

Keywords::

• abortive migraine treatment
• acute migraine treatment
• calcitonin gene-related peptide
• CGRP
• gepant
• headache
• migraine
• rimegepant

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank SL Peters for her contributions as proofreader, reviewer and editing of the manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Company review disclosure

In addition to the peer-review process, with the author’s consent, the manufacturer of the product discussed in this article was given the opportunity to review the manuscript for factual accuracy. Changes were made by the author at their discretion and based on scientific or editorial merit only. The author maintained full control over the manuscript, including content, wording and conclusions.