Q&A: AbbVie ‘committed to empowering’ patients with migraine
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With an estimated 1 billion people affected by migraine worldwide, there is an urgent need to provide effective treatment for this debilitating disease.
To learn more about current efforts in the research and development of migraine treatment, Healio spoke with AbbVie representatives Nikil Patel, vice president of U.S. medical affairs and neuroscience, and Michael Gold, vice president of neuroscience development, about the biopharmaceutical company’s therapeutic discoveries.
Healio: How does AbbVie approach research and development of its migraine therapeutics?
Patel: At AbbVie, we aim to reduce the impact of migraine, a serious and debilitating neurologic disease that is a leading cause of disability and has a significant effect on people’s lives. We believe migraine is treatable and are committed to helping people who live with this disease.
AbbVie provides a comprehensive treatment toolbox with therapies that target different treatment pathways. Because no two migraine patients are alike, it’s important that health care providers have a variety of treatment options available to treat the differing patient needs.
We envision a world where people living with migraine can prevent and manage migraine days to help them live their life to the fullest. We are committed to empowering people living with migraine disease.
Healio: What work has AbbVie done in developing migraine treatments?
Patel: We are proud to offer three treatments across the full spectrum of migraine to help patients living with this debilitating disease. They include:
Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA), which prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine (15 or more headache days a month, each lasting 4 hours or more);
Qulipta (atogepant), a once daily oral calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist (gepant) specifically developed for the preventive treatment of episodic migraine in adults; and
Ubrelvy (ubrogepant), which is indicated for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults and is the first acute treatment for migraine to directly block CGRP.
Healio: What are AbbVie’s ongoing goals for migraine treatment?
Patel: Because migraine is different from person to person and even in the same person from attack to attack, it’s important that health care providers have a variety of treatment options available to treat the differing needs of their patients. To that end, we are continuing research to investigate additional uses and benefits of our on-market products.
Healio: What inspired the creation of the AbbVie’s Research Collaborative, a health data platform that allows patients to share important medical information with researchers?
Patel: AbbVie’s mission is to discover and develop new medicines for patients. To do that, we need data from patients. This can help us understand serious medical conditions and how they affect different individuals, which can lead to the development of new therapies.
Migraine affects more than 1 billion people worldwide. Our scientists are on a mission to change that statistic and help improve lives. Every day they are gathering new data that could help improve treatments.
The Research Collaborative can help speed up the process by allowing patients to connect and share health and lifestyle data to help scientists unlock insights needed to better understand complex diseases like migraine.
Healio: How does AbbVie integrate its therapeutic endeavors with its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion?
Gold: AbbVie is committed to becoming the leader in the design of inclusive clinical research programs. We strive to ensure that every program — independent of therapeutic area or geography — offers equitable access and enhanced trial experiences for both patients and physicians.
This work may include enhanced community partnerships, clinical research staff education, investigator trainings, new site selection strategies and targeted patient outreach. In fact, we are actively working to expand our network of primary investigators to include underrepresented health care providers and are working to remove access barriers to our clinical trials (eg, travel costs, internet connectivity, etc.).
Additionally, AbbVie is pursuing registrations in regions outside the U.S., which, if successful, will increase access to AbbVie migraine treatments to a broader, more diverse population. Finally, data show that migraine is underdiagnosed and undertreated in underrepresented populations, so we are focused on efforts to improve medical education about migraine for health care providers serving these patients.