MIGRAINE: More than a headache

According to the American Journal of Managed Care, migraine headache incurs estimated annual costs totaling as much as $17 billion in the United States. Most of the direct costs are for outpatient services: medications, office or clinic visits, emergency department visits, laboratory and diagnostic services, and management of treatment side effects. Indirect costs from lost productivity in the workplace add substantially to the total.

The Mayo Clinic describes migraines as follows: A migraine can cause severe throbbing pain or a pulsing sensation, usually on just one side of the head. It's often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound.
Migraine attacks can cause significant pain for hours to days and can be so severe that the pain is disabling. Warning symptoms known as aura may occur before or with the headache. These can include flashes of light, blind spots, or tingling on one side of the face or in an arm or leg.

A search in Prescribe Right’s Pharmaceutical Pipeline Tracker found 8 investigational drugs targeting migraine: six in Phase III; two in Phase II. Eight different pharmaceutical companies are involved in the research. Company approaches to the development have taken five indication pathways. One company has a Phase III trial for migraine prophylaxis and a Phase II trial for episodic migraine prevention. Four companies have Phase III trials and one company a Phase II trial targeting migraine prophylaxis.

If you’d like to review the migraine pipeline, click on this link to a FREE trial of the Pharmaceutical Pipeline Tracker, complete the form and put the words “FREE TRIAL” in the comments section. Your username and password will be sent to you soon​. 

More in-depth knowledge about migraines, can be found on the Mayo Clinic and Statista web sites.