Gilbert L'Italien, PhD: The Economic Impact of MIDAS Disability Grades in Migraine

“Therapies that alleviate or reduce that disability [would be important]. On average in our 201 study, we saw an 11-day improvement in time lost due to migraine, which would translate into substantive reductions in cost.”

Real-world data presented in a set of posters at the virtual 2020 American Headache Society (AHS) Annual Meeting suggest that there is a strong and consistent relationship between migraine-related disability, as measured by Migraine Disability Assessment Scale (MIDAS) score, and healthcare costs for patients treated by both general practitioners and headache specialists.^1,2

The data, according to study author Gil L’Italien, PhD, senior vice president, Global Health Economics and Outcomes Research and Epidemiology, Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, note that levels of moderate to severe disability impose a negative impact on healthcare costs, workplace productivity, and patient well-being. L’Italien noted that Biohaven’s acute migraine agent rimegepant (Nurtec ODT) has a demonstrated improvement to MIDAS scores with regular use.

In an interview with NeurologyLive, he expanded on the findings of this analysis and offered insight into future plans to explore if the treatment improvements in disability with rimegepant treatment may also result in reduced health care/pharmacy costs with predictive model development and validation assessment.

For more coverage of AHS 2020, click here.

REFERENCES

1. L’Italien GJ, LaVallee C, Kumar A, et al. Lost-time is Associated with Total Health Care and Pharmaceutical Costs: A US-Based Real-World Longitudinal Analysis. Headache. 2020;60(S1 suppl). 1-156. doi: 10.1111/head.13854

2. . L’Italien GJ, LaVallee C, Kumar A, et al. MIDAS Disability Grades are Associated with Total Health Care and Pharmaceutical Costs: A US-Based Real-World Longitudinal Analysis. Headache. 2020;60(S1 suppl). 1-156. doi: 10.1111/head.13854