Migraine

The Institute for Patient Access has issued a response to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) following its report assessing the clinical effectiveness and economic value of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors for the treatment of chronic or episodic migraines.

Common polygenic variation significantly contributes to the aggregation of migraine in families, whether they are common or rare subtypes.

Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD, a senior clinical consultant in Emerging Therapeutics for Express Scripts, discusses specialty drugs that have recently been approved, and which we will likely see approved in the remainder of the year.

Combined, migraine-related absenteeism and presenteeism is responsible for 86 million lost workdays and costs £8.8 billion annually.

Women with a past history of migraine have a 15% higher risk of developing hypertension than those with no history of migraine, according to study findings published in Cephalalgia.

After 3 months of treatment with a single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation, patients averaged 3 fewer migraines per month, according to study findings.

Migraine is a chronic illness, but many people, including both patients and healthcare providers­, don’t think of it that way, said Richard G. Wenzel, PharmD, CPPS, speaking at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy’s Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy Annual Meeting held April 23-26, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Women account for over 75% of Americans who experience migraines, which could be attributable to the way that estrogen levels affect cells in the brain, according to new study findings.

Amgen and Novartis announced full results from the LIBERTY trial, which assessed erenumab as preventive treatment for patients with episodic migraine who had previously failed on 2 to 4 treatments. The study met its primary endpoint and all of its secondary endpoints.

While calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors are projected to have a positive impact on the health of patients with chronic or episodic migraines for whom preventive therapy had failed relative to no treatment, it is likely that the inhibitors will exceed commonly-cited willingness-to-pay thresholds, according to a report from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER).

The pharmaceutical company announced that rimegepant, for the acute treatment of migraines, demonstrated superiority to placebo and met the co-primary endpoints of pain freedom and freedom from the most bothersome symptom in 2 pivotal phase 3 trials.

Novartis' calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitor for prevention of migraine, erenumab, showed positive results in a phase 3b study in episodic migraine patients who have failed multiple prior preventive treatments.

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is seeking public comment on its review of 3 calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors for prevention of migraine, as well as an update to its 2016 report on treatments for plaque psoriasis.

Hydromorphone is commonly used in hospital emergency rooms to treat patients with migraines; however, the drug is less effective than the drug prochlorperazine used with diphenhydramine, according to research.

Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD, of Express Scripts kicked off the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) 2017 Nexus, held October 16-19 in Dallas, Texas, with a presentation on the pipeline of specialty pharmaceuticals in development.

This study describes the patient characteristics and healthcare utilization of a chronic pain population within an integrated healthcare system in northern California.

Brain scans remain "substantially overused" on patients who visit the doctor complaining of headaches and migraines, despite multiple guidelines recommending against their use. Physicians must be vigilant about having conversations with patients about the risks, neurologists say.

Standardized measurement of migraine, an underdiagnosed and perhaps underrecognized condition, is necessary for health plans to understand utilization of costly diagnostic and treatment services.