Recent Medications Approved for Preventing Migraine Headaches

Migraine is the third most prevalent disease in the world and affects approximately 39 million individuals in the United States alone. Migraine occurs in nearly one in seven individuals between 15 and 49 years of age and is three times more frequent in women than in men. The FDA recently approved three new humanized monoclonal antibodies that target calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP): erenumab, fremanezumab, and galcanezumab. The agents either bind to the CGRP receptor (erenumab) or bind to the CGRP ligand (fremanezumab and galcanezumab) and block its binding to the receptor.