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THE PHARMACY
Introduction to the Newest Migraine Medications
There haven’t been any drugs with an FDA indication for migraine prevention within the thousands of medications floating around in the market. Recently, four injectable medications hit the market with good clinical evidence for preventing migraines. In this article, I will introduce these medications and go over some side effects and counseling points.
Biologics
This class of drugs is considered biologics, meaning that they are products made from living organisms. More examples of products made from living organisms include vaccines, insulin, monoclonal antibodies, and pig-derived thyroid supplements. All of these were made from parts of living things to treat a disease state.
In this case, the drugs we’re talking about today are considered monoclonal antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies are manufactured antibodies that resemble the ones people make in their bodies. Sometimes they are fully human antibodies, and other times they are chimeric. This meaning that part of the antibody comes from another living source, like a mouse, for example.
