Addex Pharmaceuticals, the allosteric modulation company has started phase-IIb trial of ADX10059 as a migraine prevention therapy in people who suffer from three or more migraine attacks per month.

ADX10059 is a first-in-class migraine prophylactic which works by inhibiting the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) through negative allosteric modulation (NAM). Addex believes mGluR5 may be a key player in a neural process that initiates migraine headaches. Thus, this approach - inhibiting mGluR5 - may lead to a new class of drugs that addresses the causes of migraine rather than just treating the symptoms.

Chief Medical Officer Charlotte Keywood said, "We have already shown that mGluR5 inhibition plays a relevant role in modifying the pathophysiology of migraine, when we observed significant efficacy with ADX10059 in a clinical proof of concept study for acute treatment of migraine. This phase-IIb study will allow us to assess the potential of ADX10059 in migraine prevention. This is an indication where there is a continuing large unmet medical need and where there no current treatments that are specifically targeted to inhibiting neurotransmission in the migraine pathway."

Addex Pharmaceuticals discovers and develops allosteric modulators for human health. Allosteric modulators are a different kind of orally available small molecule therapeutic agent, which is believed, will offer patients better results than classical drugs.