CoLucid Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company, has reached agreement with the Food and Drug Administration's Division of Neurology Products concerning the development strategy for lasmiditan at a recently completed End of Phase 2 meeting. Lasmiditan is a novel therapy for acute migraine and will initially be developed to address major unmet needs in two patient populations who are poorly served by currently available therapies: 1) patients with risk factors for cardiovascular disease and those with diagnosed cardiovascular disease and 2) patients who have not had adequate efficacy from triptans. The development program will be confirmed via the Special Protocol Assessment process.
Lasmiditan is a first-in-class Neurally Acting Anti-Migraine Agent (NAAMA) designed to deliver efficacy in migraine without the vasoconstrictor activity associated with previous generations of migraine therapies such as triptans. Lasmiditan is a member of a novel chemical class called "ditans" and, unlike triptans, penetrates the central nervous system (CNS) and selectively targets receptors expressed in the trigeminal pathway. Lasmiditan does not interact with vasoconstrictor receptors on peripheral blood vessels which are activated by triptans.
CoLucid has further evaluated lasmiditan's cardiovascular profile by recently completing a Thorough QT/QTc study (TQT) titled COL MIG-105: A Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled, 4-way Crossover Study to Compare the Effects on the Cardiac De- and Re-polarization Duration as well as other Cardiac Safety Parameters of Two Doses of Oral Lasmiditan (100 mg and 400 mg) with those of Moxifloxacin (400 mg) and Placebo in Healthy Subjects. The statistical evaluation of the primary variable revealed that lasmiditan caused no significant QT prolongation either at 100 mg (the putative therapeutic dose) or at 400 mg (supratherapeutic dose), whereas moxifloxacin caused a QT prolonging effect similar to that seen in published studies and thus assay sensitivity for this study was demonstrated. No pro-arrhythmic effect of lasmiditan was observed in the assessments of ECGs made by a cardiologist, and safety and tolerability were similar to observations in previous studies.
"We believe that lasmiditan's unique central mechanism of action provides acute migraine relief without the associated chest symptoms and vasoconstrictor effects seen with triptans. Lasmiditan could be a very important treatment for those patients who are warned not to take triptans, such as patients with high blood pressure or high cholesterol, obese patients or those with diabetes, smokers and patients with a strong family history of coronary artery disease, post-menopausal women or men over 40 years of age," commented Thomas P. Mathers, Chief Executive Officer. "There are a large number of acute migraine patients who do not respond to triptan therapy. Lasmiditan could provide an excellent therapeutic alternative for these patients who now frequently turn to opioids."
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