Stopping Migraine in its Tracks

LOS ANGELES. (KFSN) -- If you or someone you know has ever suffered from a migraine, you know how debilitating they can be. Now, clinical trials on a drug that prevents migraines are showing promising results. Researchers are testing an antibody that basically attacks the molecule that causes migraines.

Bianca Harris' migraines started two years ago. She gets them five days a week.

Harris told Ivanhoe, "I'm lucky sometimes it doesn't come on for like an hour and kind of fools me for a little bit. But yeah, they're always there."

She's a patient of David Kudrow, M.D., director of the Neurological Research Institute of Southern California in Los Angeles. She hopes to get into his study of ALD 403, an antibody targeting a peptide that triggers migraine pain. It's in an IV given every three months.

"The studies that have been reported so far show that it is effective in reduction of frequency, intensity, duration of migraines, and it reduces the amount of medication that patients will need acutely to treat their migraines," explained Dr. Kudrow. (Read Full Interview)

The most recent results show that 33 percent of patients taking the higher dose of the drug report a 75 percent reduction in their number of migraine days.

"It would be wonderful if I could just go back to having a normal life and be productive and not have to worry about if I'm out doing something if I am going to have a terrible headache," said Harris.

She has high hopes for this drug because nothing else has worked for her.

Alder Biopharmaceuticals just wrapped up its Phase 2B trial and is about to enter the final phase of testing before going to the FDA for approval. It is one of four pharmaceutical companies developing a drug to prevent migraines.

For more information on this report, please go to www.thepromisestudy.com.