ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT05264714Updated Jan 12, 2026

Cluster Headache Treatment With Rimegepant

A Phase 2 interventional study of Rimegepant in Cluster Headache, sponsored by Mayo Clinic. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-01-12.

Sponsored by Mayo Clinic · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
20
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

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

Read the 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.

02

Conditions studied

  • Cluster Headache

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03

In context

Cluster Headache

123 studies on the registry are indexed under Cluster Headache; 26 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 20 is below the median of 42 across 90 interventional studies indexed under Cluster Headache.

Browse Cluster Headache studies →

Lead sponsor

Mayo Clinic is the lead sponsor of 3,269 studies on the registry; 672 are open to participants now.

Of its 452 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 321 (71%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

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 ) performed after the onset of headaches.
  • Subjects agree to refrain from starting a new prophylactic cluster headache medicine, including 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

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 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 (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).
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(4)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

TIA (transient ischaemic attack)

A “mini-stroke”: temporary stroke-like symptoms caused by reduced blood flow to part of the brain, spinal cord or eye, without signs of a new stroke on a scan.

Stroke symptoms need emergency care at once, even if they go away.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
20 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • 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

Interventions

  • 150 mg oral disintegrating tablet every other day for one week

    Also known as: Nurtec ODT

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in weekly frequency of cluster headache attacks

    Total number of cluster headache attacks experienced in one week

    Time frame: Baseline, week of treatment (days 1-7)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change in daily headache severity

    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

    Time frame: Baseline, week of treatment (days 1-8)

  2. Change in daily frequency of cluster headache attacks

    Total number of cluster headaches experienced daily

    Time frame: Baseline, week of treatment (days 1-8)

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Mayo Clinic Rochester
    Rochester, Minnesota 55905, United States
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jan 12, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05264714
Lead sponsor
Mayo Clinic
Responsible party
Carrie (Beth) E. Robertson, MD (Principal Investigator, Mayo Clinic) — Principal investigator
First posted
Mar 3, 2022
Start date
Sep 7, 2022
Primary completion
Dec 31, 2025
Completion
Dec 31, 2025
Last update
Jan 12, 2026

Study contacts

Carrie Robertson, MD
principal investigator · Mayo Clinic

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
Yes
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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Studies of the drug tested here: Rimegepant

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