Primary Care Physicians Face Barriers to Utilization of New Migraine Drugs
The uptake among primary care physicians of new migraine drugs has been hindered by 2 significant obstacles, a headache specialist explained to Patient Care Online.
The advent of injectable calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) blockers kicked off a type of research renaissance in migraine therapy when the class began launching in late 2019. Shortly thereafter, the US Food and Drug Administration approved oral formulations of CGRP inhibitors called gepants (ie, rimegepant, ubrogepant), which are only taken as needed at the onset of a migraine attack.
According to Peter McAllister, MD, a headache specialist and principal investigator on clinical trials of several of the new drugs, the time-consuming prior authorization process and lack of education around these new drugs are making uptake difficult among primary care physicians.
In the video below, Dr McAllister details these obstacles and what he is doing to help educate physicians on these new migraine medications.
