How long does it take to start working?

Q: How long does it take to start working?

Most patients usually respond within a month of starting Ajovy treatment, and some respond within one week, if the medicine works for them. In general, Ajovy can help to reduce the number of migraine headache days you have by about 1.5 to 2 days per month.

Official answer

by Drugs.com

Most patients who are helped by Ajovy usually respond within a month or sooner of starting treatment. On average, compared to using a placebo (an inactive treatment), Ajovy can help to reduce your number of migraine headache days by about 1 to 2 days per month. Talk with your doctor about the results you might expect, as results can vary.

In addition, Ajovy was shown to be effective and well-tolerated in patients with difficult-to-treat migraine who had previously not responded to two to four classes of other types of migraine preventive medications. Some patients responded within one week of starting treatment with Ajovy.

Ajovy is approved by the FDA to prevent migraine headache attacks in adults 18 years of age and older. Ajovy is not used to treat an ongoing migraine headache.

Ajovy (fremanezumab-vfrm) is in the class of medicines known as calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors.

Ajovy works by binding to the calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) ligand to prevent it from binding to its receptor. This can help prevent migraine headache pain.

Ajovy is given as an injection: either from an autoinjector or from a single-dose pre-filled syringe. You (or a caregiver) can be taught how to inject this medicine at home. Most patients prefer autoinjectors over syringes due to ease of use.

Can Ajovy prevent a migraine headache?

Yes, Ajovy has been shown in clinical studies to help prevent the number of migraine headache days in a 12-week period.

In clinical studies in patients with chronic migraine (15 or more headache days per month), Ajovy reduced migraine days by 5 days a month compared to 3.2 days a month for the placebo (inactive treatment) group (a 1.8 day difference).

In patients with episodic migraine (less than 15 headache days per month), Ajovy reduced migraine days on average by 3.5 days compared to 2.2 days a month for the placebo (inactive treatment) group (a 1.3 day difference).

These results were seen when Ajovy was given either monthly or quarterly over a 12-week period. Studies results continued to improve between month one and month three, as well.

Additionally, over one-third (32%) of patients with chronic migraine and almost half (46%) of patients with episodic migraine had their monthly migraine days reduced by at least one-half over the 12-week period.

My other migraine prevention medicines don’t work. Will Ajovy work for me?

In the FOCUS study, some patients who had failed previous migraine prevention treatments saw results with Ajovy as early as the first week of treatment.

The FOCUS study looked at 838 patients with chronic or episodic migraine who had an inadequate response to two or more classes of preventive medications. Improvements were seen as early as week 1 and were sustained throughout the 3-month treatment period (an exploratory endpoint).*

Patients receiving Ajovy with quarterly dosing (every 3 months) experienced 3.7 fewer migraine headache days compared to 0.6 less migraine headache days with placebo, a significant effect.

Over one-third of patients (34%) had their monthly migraine days reduced by at least one-half over the 12-week period vs 9% for placebo (P<0.0001), a secondary endpoint in the study.

In addition, patients had fewer days of using migraine-specific medications to treat acute migraine headache pain.

*For all exploratory analyses, no determination of statistical significance can be made and no conclusions should be drawn.

Bottom Line

Most patients who are helped by Ajovy usually respond within a month or sooner of starting treatment. In some studies, patients responded as soon as one week.

On average, compared to using a placebo (an inactive treatment), Ajovy can help to reduce your number of migraine headache days by about 1 to 2 days per month.

Talk with your doctor about the results you might expect, as results can vary.

This is not all the information you need to know about Ajovy (fremanezumab-vfrm) for safe and effective use. Review the full Ajovy product information here, and discuss this information with your doctor or other health care provider.

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