For millions of people, a migraine is not just a headache. It is a neurological condition that can halt daily life.

A Hungarian biotech firm says it may have found a way to stop attacks before they begin.

On stage, actress and singer Kata Kuna appears calm and in control. Lights fade up. The lines come with ease. The story unfolds before the audience.

But behind the curtain, another struggle often takes place. Kuna has lived with migraines for most of her life.

She told CGTN: "It's not just the headache. It's so much worse. Usually, I feel the pain on one side of my head. I also feel very sick, nauseous. And I became very sensitive to light and smells and even sounds. So, yeah, it's very bad and it feels depressing in a way because you are just helpless." 

Her migraines began early in life.

"I started to experience migraines very early in my childhood. Probably I inherited it from my mother because she also suffered from this kind of pain…. I have a memory of them from when I was three or four years old," she said.

Migraines affect about one billion people worldwide. Doctors say women suffer at about twice the rate of men. Symptoms often start during the teenage years.

For decades, most treatments have focused on easing pain once an attack begins.

Researchers in Budapest are testing a different idea. They want to prevent the attacks before they start.

"The preventive therapies are useful for those who have more than three migraine attacks a month but these people are really not very well treated recently because only about 50 percent of them receive effective therapy," said Dr. Sándor Farkas, chief scientific officer at Novamigra Therapeutics.

Farkas and his team have developed a drug called VRG-145.

The treatment targets two biological pathways linked to migraines.

According to Farkas: "What we discovered is a strong synergy between two drugs. One is a neurological drug that decreases the excitability of the brain, and the other one is a vascular target. 

"So the vascular component of migraine mechanism is affected, and what is most interesting and exciting is that when we combine these two drugs in a preclinical experiment, it turned out that they have a strong synergy. In some patients, we expect that it will completely eradicate migraines."

The company has raised close to three million euros ($3.44 million) to launch its first human trial.

The first phase will test the drug on 36 healthy volunteers in Hungary.

"Phase one is based on safety and pharmacokinetic study, which basically means that we are assessing tolerability," said Tamás Kökény, managing director of Novamigra Therapeutics. "Phase two is when we basically see and test the efficacy on around 140 patients."

Researchers say migraines remain one of the most misunderstood neurological conditions.Symptoms can resemble severe headaches. Many patients wait years for the correct diagnosis.

Hope

Beyond the pain, the condition can affect work and daily life.

"When we talk to patients there are many, many problems they face," Kökény said. "The most obvious is that they have a migraine and all the symptoms that come with it. But they see many indirect effects in the workplace. Many feel that they're misunderstood and not being supported by their peers, or by their seniors."

For patients like Kuna, the research offers hope.

If the therapy succeeds, it could remove the fear of a migraine attack in the middle of a performance.

And for millions around the world, it could mean far less pain.