Cluster Headache Treatment With Rimegepant

January 9, 2026 updated by: Carrie (Beth) E. Robertson, MD, Mayo Clinic

Cluster Headache Treatment With Rimegepant-Open Label Pilot Study

The purpose of this research is to explore the efficacy of rimegepant as a preventative therapy for cluster headache.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

This is a prospective, open-label pilot study to investigate the use of rimegepant for the treatment of cluster headache. Subjects will be screened at outpatient clinic visit appointments and interested qualified subjects will be consented and offered participation in this trial. Once consent has been obtained, patients with cluster headache will start immediately keeping track of their headaches for a one-week baseline. In contrast, patients with episodic cluster headache will be asked to contact the study coordinator at the onset of their next cluster cycle, at which point they will repeat the screening and then start their one-week baseline headache diary. After establishing the baseline headache frequency, severity, and abortive medicine use, patients will be asked to start their first dose of study drug with their next moderate to severe cluster headache. They will rate their pain for this headache on a 5 point severity scale ("no headache," "mild," "moderate," "severe" or "very severe" and rate the pain on a scale of 0 to 10 ("0" is no pain and "10" is most severe pain imaginable) at the time of taking rimegepant and rate the pain again at 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes after taking the drug. 60 or more minutes after taking the rimegepant, they are allowed to use their usual standard of care for the acute/abortive treatment of acute cluster attacks. After this first dose, they will then take rimegepant on an every other day schedule for a total of 4 doses over 8 days. A final visit for evaluation and collection of headache diaries will be conducted at the end of the study.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
20

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Minnesota
      • Rochester, Minnesota, United States, 55905
        • Mayo Clinic Rochester

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Having a diagnosis of recurrent cluster headaches, as described by ICHD-3 (International Classification of Headache Disorders-3):

    • Severe or very severe unilateral orbital, supraorbital and/or temporal pain lasting 15-180 minutes, when untreated.

    • Headache is accompanied by at least one of the following:

      • Ipsilateral conjunctival injection and/or lacrimation;
      • Ipsilateral nasal congestion and/or rhinorrhea;
      • Ipsilateral eyelid edema;
      • Ipsilateral forehead and facial sweating;
      • Ipsilateral miosis and/or ptosis;
      • A sense of restlessness or agitation.
    • Headache attacks occur at a frequency between every other day and 8 per day.
    • Headaches are not attributed to another disorder.
  • Subjects able to distinguish cluster headache attacks from other headache disorders, such as migraine.
  • Subjects on prophylactic headache medicines other than verapamil will be permitted to remain on these with possible headache-prophylactic effects if the dose is stable for at least 2 months (onabotulinumtoxinA injections stable for 6 months) prior to the screening visit and the dose is not expected to change during the course of the study.
  • Prior MR (magnetic resonance) imaging of head (CT if MRI contraindicated) performed after the onset of headaches.
  • Subjects agree to refrain from starting a new prophylactic cluster headache medicine, including steroids and nerve blocks, during the course of the study.
  • Subjects are required to have a cluster headache attack fre-quency ranging from one attack every other day to eight attacks per day, with at least four total attacks during the one-week prospective baseline period. Additionally, episodic cluster headache patients are required to have a history of cluster head-ache period lasting at least 6 weeks.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Subjects with a history of an adverse reaction to CGRP (calcitonin gene-related peptide) antibodies or another CGRP antagonist (gepant).
  • Subjects with episodic cluster who are felt to be toward the end of their cluster cycle (estimated to be within the last 4 weeks).
  • Pregnancy (negative serum pregnancy testing at enrollment and use of contraception considered to be effective).
  • Subjects with a history of uncontrolled, unstable, or recently diagnosed cardiovascular disease, such as ischemic heart disease, coronary artery vasospasm, and cerebral ischemia. Subjects with myocardial infarction (MI), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), stroke, or transient ischemic attack (TIA) in the 6 months prior to screening.
  • Subjects with other pain syndromes, psychiatric conditions, dementia or significant neurological disorders that, in the investigator's opinion might interfere with study assessments.
  • Use of peripheral nerve blocks (e.g., occipital, supraorbital, auriculotemporal, and/or sphenopalatine ganglion nerve blocks) one month prior to enrollment.
  • Use of opioids or barbiturates more than 5 days per month.
  • Use of other small molecule CGRP antagonist (gepant) 1 month prior to enrollment or during duration of study
  • Use of verapamil during the study
  • Use of CGRP monoclonal antibodies 3 months prior to enrollment or during duration of study.
  • Subjects with a secondary cluster headache related to an underlying structural etiology identified by imaging (CT or MRI).

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Cluster Headache Subjects
Subjects with cluster headaches will track their headaches for a one-week baseline headache diary. After establishing the baseline headache frequency, severity, and abortive medicine use, subjects will be asked to start their first dose of rimegepant with their next moderate to severe cluster headache.
Drug: Rimegepant
150 mg oral disintegrating tablet every other day for one week
Other Names:
  • Nurtec ODT

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in weekly frequency of cluster headache attacks
Time Frame: Baseline, week of treatment (days 1-7)
Total number of cluster headache attacks experienced in one week
Baseline, week of treatment (days 1-7)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in daily headache severity
Time Frame: Baseline, week of treatment (days 1-8)
Change from baseline daily headache severity in days 1 through 8 in subjects treated with rimegepant, as measured on a Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), an 11-point scale from 0 to 10, where "0" indicates no pain and "10" suggests the most severe pain imaginable
Baseline, week of treatment (days 1-8)
Change in daily frequency of cluster headache attacks
Time Frame: Baseline, week of treatment (days 1-8)
Total number of cluster headaches experienced daily
Baseline, week of treatment (days 1-8)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Mayo Clinic

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Carrie Robertson, MD, Mayo Clinic

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
September 7, 2022

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
December 31, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
December 31, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
February 22, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
February 22, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
March 3, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
January 12, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
January 9, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 21-003394

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

Yes

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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