Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Re: CRGP/migraine quiz

Agreed re Botox, although perhaps the article meant no new drugs that weren't already approved for other indications.

You’re probably giving the author too much credit, IMO; I would say it’s more likely that he simply didn’t know about Botox for migraine. (By and large, I find articles by STAT to be wanting.)

Here’s another statement from the article that I find misleading, although it’s not an outright falsehood:

CGRP levels rocket up when headaches attack and normalize when they go away.

The above statement suggests that a migraine attack generates a simple CGRP-vs-time relationship that looks like an inverted “V”; however, the actual relationship is complex, due to positive feedback loops and factors that haven’t been fully elucidated.

The mistake I was after related specifically to the CGRP drugs.

The article also says:

The goal: to relieve the scourge of chronic migraines by stopping CGRP in its tracks.

Actually, you wouldn’t want to shut down CGRP completely (either by binding it directly or by blocking the receptor) because CGRP plays a role in the cardiovascular system. Thus, the anti-migraine drugs in development seek to reduce excess amounts of CGRP rather than to “stop CGRP in its tracks.”