Long-term treatment with zavegepant nasal spray improves migraine-related quality of life

Key takeaways:

• Phase 2/3 study included more than 600 adults with a 1 year history of migraine.
• Treatment with 10 mg zavegepant nasal spray led to better quality of life as soon as week 12, which continued to week 52.

AUSTIN, Texas — Treatment with 10 mg zavegepant nasal spray resulted in better quality of life as early as 12 weeks and through 1 year in adult patients with migraine, according to research presented here.

“Migraine has been identified as one of the 10 most disabling medical disorders in the world,” Jelena M. Pavlovic, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and colleagues wrote in a poster at the American Headache Society Annual Scientific Meeting. “Patients with migraine identify rapid onset of treatment effect as a priority.”

Pavlovic and colleagues conducted a phase 2/3, open-label safety study of 10 mg zavegepant nasal spray for treatment of acute migraine in 603 adults (mean age, 42.1 years; 85.7% women). Eligible participants had a 1-year history of migraine with or without aura and two to eight moderate to severe migraines per month in the 3 months before screening.

Participants self-administered a single dose of the spray daily as needed for migraine attacks, up to eight times in a 4-week period, for 52 weeks. Previously prescribed treatments were allowed, including aspirin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, as well as stable doses of calcitonin gene-related peptide monoclonal antibodies.

Researchers measured treatment efficacy via the 14-item Migraine-Specific Quality-of-Life (MSQ) questionnaire version 2.1, which assessed restrictive role function (RR), preventive role function (PR) and emotional function (EF), with higher MSQ scores indicative of better quality of life. Scores were evaluated at baseline and weeks 12 and 52, as well as at other intermediate intervals.

According to results, 341 participants completed the yearlong study.

Researchers reported improvement from baseline across all three MSQ domains at assessment intervals, with mean changes in RR, PR and EF of 8.6, 6.7 and 6.8, respectively, at week 12 (n = 501) and 13.8, 10.1 and 11.3, respectively, at week 52 (n = 336).

Data additionally showed that mean MSQ scores for RR, PR and EF were 70.5, 82.5 and 80.2, respectively, at week 52.

“Long-term treatment with zavegepant 10 mg nasal spray was associated with improvements in migraine-specific quality of life,” Pavlovic and colleagues wrote.