Real-world experience of erenumab in patients with chronic or episodic migraine in the UAE

BACKGROUND: Erenumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody and a highly potent, first-in-class calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor inhibitor approved for migraine prevention in adults. Randomised, placebo-controlled trials show that erenumab treatment results in clinically meaningful responses, including significant reductions in monthly migraine days. Real-world evidence of the effectiveness of erenumab in patients with migraine is accruing, but gaps remain, and findings may vary according to region. We evaluated the usage patterns and effectiveness of erenumab in real-world settings in patients with migraine in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). METHODS: This retrospective, observational real-world study enrolled patients ≥ 18 years with migraine who were prescribed erenumab in the UAE. Data were collected at baseline and Months 1, 3 and 6. The primary study objective was to characterise usage patterns of erenumab in patients with chronic migraine (CM) or episodic migraine (EM) in real-world settings in the UAE. RESULTS: Of the 166 patients, 124 (74.7%) were females. The mean (standard deviation) age at migraine onset was 29 (7.93) years. Seventy-one patients (42.8%) had CM and 95 (57.2%) had EM. In the overall population, the mean monthly headache/migraine days (MHD) at baseline was 15.7 (8.45) and mean change from baseline was − 8.2 (8.83) at Month 1, − 11.0 (9.15) at Month 3 and − 11.3 (8.90) at Month 6. The mean change from baseline in monthly acute migraine-specific medication days (MSMD) was − 9.0 (8.07) at Month 1, − 9.7 (8.73) at Month 3 and − 10.7 (8.95) at Month 6. At all time points, most patients achieved at least 50% reduction in MHD (80%–91%) and MSMD (84%–94%). Similar reductions in MHD and MSMD and clinical benefit in CM or EM were seen with erenumab monotherapy or erenumab add-on therapy, with or without dose escalation and for treatment naïve or ≥ 1 previous preventive treatment failures, with additional clinical benefit in the erenumab add-on therapy and dose escalation to 140 mg subgroups. CONCLUSION: In this real-world study on erenumab use in the UAE, patients prescribed erenumab achieved clinically meaningful reductions in MHD and MSMD at all assessed time points. Erenumab was well tolerated with no new safety events. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12883-022-02710-5.