The FDA recently rejected pharmaceutical company NuPathe’s transdermal migraine patch, Zelrix, based on safety and manufacturing concerns. The patch is an experimental treatment that uses a mild electrical current to push the popular anti-migraine drug sumatriptan through the skin and into the blood stream. It was designed to eliminate some of the side effects inherent in oral medications and was the first of its kind to be reviewed by the FDA.
Although the regulatory agency acknowledged the transdermal patch is effective in the overall migraine population, it requested further study before it could approve the product.
