Photo (L-R) Sarah Cahill, Professor Debbie Hay, Rich Easton, Dr Fiona Imlach, Professor Peter Goadsby, Dr Calvin Chan.
On Saturday 30 November 2024, our migraine community came together both in person and online to hear from three migraine experts, in what was a first for New Zealand.
Together with the Neurological Foundation, we hosted Migraine Unravelled: The latest in migraine medication and pain management solutions, an incredibly informative, free event that covered a wide range of topics and provided practical solutions for people in New Zealand to better manage their migraine disease.
After a brief introduction by our two of our co-founders Sarah and Fiona, Professor Peter Goadsby got the presentations underway. Professor Goadsby is an Australian neuroscientist and physician based at King’s College London. He’s the Director of the National Institute for Health Research – Wellcome Trust King’s Clinical Research and it was his research on the mechanisms of migraine that led to the revolution of the new migraine treatments that target calcitonin gene-related peptides (CGRPs). Professor Goadsby’s presentation focused on what research tells us about migraine, how it’s classified by the medical profession, what happens in the brain during different phases of a migraine attack, what is a trigger and what is a prodromal symptom, and ending on a note of hope and encouragement that more research is being done on migraine and this disease is finally being taken seriously as a neurological condition.
Professor Debbie Hay then took the stage. Professor Hay is a researcher at Otago University, Dunedin, leading a laboratory focusing on G protein coupled receptors, which are the target of drugs designed to treat migraine. Debbie’s presentation focused on the new wave of migraine medications, specifically the CGRP medications. Debbie explained the difference between the CGRP medications that target the CGRP molecule versus the medications that target the CGRP receptors on cells. She provided a simple-to-understand video for those visual learners in the room (like myself) that really helped in the understanding of what these medications are doing at a cellular level. Debbie also answered some common questions about the CGRP medications.
Following Debbie’s presentation, Professor Peter Goadsby was invited to join Debbie on stage for a question and answer session, with questions provided by our migraine community prior to and during the event.
After morning tea, our second session began with a brief update about atogepant (Aquipta) and Botoxᵀᴹ given by Michaela Lion, Head of Market Access and Government Affairs at AbbVie NZ. AbbVie is the pharmaceutical company that makes Aquipta and provided some sponsorship for the event.
For the final session, Palmerston North consultant neurologist and headache specialist Dr Calvin Chan discussed migraine management in the New Zealand context. Dr Chan provided a wealth of practical advice for our migraine community, covering both non-medication treatment options and their evidence for use, plus what medications we have access to in New Zealand, both funded and unfunded. This session was rounded off with another Q & A session with Dr Chan and Professor Goadsby.
We had pages and pages of questions and were only able to cover a small portion of these, but we will use these to develop more information, webinars and education events in the future. And thanks to the Neurological Foundation there is another migraine event already planned. As part of its Brain Awareness Month there will be a migraine evening held at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Auckland, Thursday 27 March 2025, 6.30pm. More details to come but the panel line up will be fantastic
Thank you to everyone who attended. The recording of the event will be available soon.
