Ubrelvy CGRP Rescue Med

I asked my doctor to get the Ubrevly, so they are doing paperwork for insurance and I got the discount card online.
I am also going to ask about emgality.
I am so excited… crazy we get excited about meds like if we were junkies… :slight_smile:

3 Likes

ha ha…i was on the fence about emgality…my neuro said these meds they can work or wont…but the good news is no bad side effects yet !

3 Likes

Don’t know whether you will find anything new in here. Nurtec, aka Rimegepant, according to the attached link can be used daily as a preventative according to the attached link.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9415375/New-tablet-promises-prevent-treat-crippling-migraines.html

I saw that article Helen and have had 3 family members link it with a “see, you can be cured” type caption. Any new drugs are to be welcomed but to have a hope of getting a CGRP you need to be on a specialists list and have at least 3 failed med trials and for the specialist to agree to you trying it. That could take a long time in the NHS system unless you are very lucky. Interesting that the main person in the article trialling Nurtec was a GP with migraines, the only people I have met in SE England who have trialled erenumab are both GP’s who claim that they had never seen patients in all their 30 years of experience who had migraines like them or had their life affected so much. Hmm… Does anyone in the UK who has MAV without bad migraine headaches have any of the newer drugs prescribed for them?
I think they need to get on with some research into what is going on with the people they work for and what are the different features/symptoms/pathology of those they don’t so the drugs can be targeted better.

Still, good news.

2 Likes

I started by asking for Nurtec but my neurologist gave me Ubrelvy. I’d take Nurtec daily if I could. Ubrelvy stopped MAV in its tracks yesterday.

I guess? Ubrelvy (how do they think these names up? Hardly rolls off the tongue) is the ‘other’ tablet mentioned in the article.

Why can’t you take it daily as a preventative. According to the article people in US can. Is that incorrect? Knowing how newspaper slant facts it would come as no surprise but at least they bring these new inventions to the public’s notice. None of the doctors where I attend know anything about the injectable preventatives. Currently they cannot prescribe them but them not knowing isn’t much use when they are advising patients of options.

We’re limited to 10 a month - same dosage restrictions as triptans and Fioricet. If they gave me 30, I’d take 30.

Yesterday I had a site visit 45 minutes drive away in Seattle. The sun was shining through bare trees along the interstate causing a staccato strobe effect. Then I went through a series of tunnels with lights every 30 feet. By the second tunnel I was gagging and hyperventilating trying to keep to my lane in 70 mph traffic. Things were spiraling. I got it under control and took a Ubrelvy. An hour later I was totally fine. And took a different route home.

1 Like

Would make me furious. Trouble is the newspapers slant the info to suit. Makes it all look the perfect doddle. They always manage to find the one person who achieved the impossible - total remission in no time whereas the rest of us know chances of success are actually, according to all the trials, no greater than with oral preventatives. The Press certainly milk it. Even the slightest mention of possible ‘restrictions’ occurs st the end of a lengthy article and bearing in mind some readers have the attention span of the average knat they probably even read that far down.

Very Good question. Very few I suspect and those only privately at £375 ish a shot. Of course the jabs haven’t been here licensed that long and the tablets still aren’t as far as I’m aware. I’ve mentioned the jabs in passing to several doctors at our practice and they hadn’t even heard they existed. One said they wouldn’t, not until their availability is such that they can prescribe them so in that case they can hardly advise people to try them. As you say its all at consultant level for now and the foreseeable I suspect.

Funny you mention numb hand as I get this quite regularly

MAV is endless fun. :slightly_smiling_face:

I just came from seeing my new neurologist, Dr. Duval. She armed me up with $300 worth of Ubrelvy to trial. She’s going to fight with my insurance for them. I’m a heart patient and can’t take triptans. I’m not sure why. If they truly are $100 per pill, I may not be able to afford them. Medicare’s prescription drug plan isn’t very good.

I just remembered that my Medicare plan will tell me the price. See below.

Coverage alert

  • You searched for Ubrelvy 100 Mg Tablet.
  • This drug is not covered by your prescription program.

I knew that about medicare. I think that’s why my parents buy supplemental insurance.

I’d say try to get the coupon card but mine states the offer is not valid for patients enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid or other federal or state programs plus a bunch of others are also excluded. Must be too new on the market and too expensive.

I noticed @Naya above tried Reyvow, another abortive that is good for folks who are contraindicated for triptans. Maybe look into that one?

I have supplemental insurance for part B, but the prescription drug coverage is entirely covered by insurance. Medicare doesn’t cover anything related to prescription drugs. The insurance company is the one refusing to cover Ubrelvy.

CO pay cards from the drug companies are forbidden to Medicare patients. It’s a law here in the US. stupid, but it’s the law.

Stupid and law go together more and more. It’s not stupid to the ones making the money.

1 Like

@TexOkie Definitely try for nurtec or ubrelvy first before Reyvow. Reyvow will make you incredibly tired and unable to do much but sleep for 8 hours after taking. Frankly, it doesn’t help me for daily MAV symptoms whatsoever. I just keep it for peace of mind if I were to get a full-blown migraine (haven’t in many months). I can’t take ubrelvy or nurtec because I’m on Emgality and my insurance won’t cover both. Merp.

1 Like

The insurance company came through. They approved my use of Ubrelvy. It will still cost a boatload of money, but only about half of what it would have cost without the insurance.

2 Likes

Yes!!