SWHR Urges ICER to Consider Disease Burden When Assessing Migraine Drugs

Policy Engagement

Published 11/30/17

SWHR provided initial input to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) as it prepares to assess the effectiveness and value of drugs for migraine.

SWHR encouraged ICER to incorporate into its analysis the extended impact and burden that migraine has on individuals, families, the workplace, and the economy. An undervaluation of this burden may deprive patients access to innovative needed treatments.

Migraine is a debilitating neurological condition that is three times more common in women than men and that affects women differently than men. Women are more likely than men to experience longer and more intense migraines, report more migraine-associated symptoms such as nausea and visual aura, and have higher levels of headache-related disability. Because women are disproportionately affected by migraine, SWHR also urged ICER to take sex and gender differences into consideration in its assessment of migraine.

READ SWHR’S COMMENTS

Learn more about migraine through the work of SWHR’s Migraine Network.