First oral treatment for migraine symptoms gets NHS green light

An oral treatment for migraine symptoms that involves dissolving a medicated wafer under your tongue has been approved for use in the NHS, and could as a result benefit hundreds of thousands of people.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has said rimgepant (a treatment made by Pfizer and also called Vydura) will be recommended as an option for preventing episodic migraine in adults where at least three previous preventive treatments have failed.

It is the first oral treatment for migraine to be recommended by NICE, which has estimated the treatment could work for as many as 145,000 people in England to use it on the NHS.

NICE’s final draft guidance has recommended rimegepant for adults who have at least four migraine attacks per month but fewer than 15.

Rimegepant also worked better than a placebo treatment for reducing the number of episodic migraines in people who have already tried three preventive treatments, it found.

More than 5.6 million people in England are thought to have episodic migraines in England and it is estimated that 190,000 migraine attacks are experienced every day in England.

Rimegepant is taken as a wafer that dissolves under the tongue. It works by stopping the release of a protein around the brain that is responsible for the severe pain associated with migraine attacks.

Helen Knight, director of medicines evaluation at NICE, said: “Each year the lives of millions of people in England are blighted by migraine attacks.

“They can be extremely debilitating and can significantly affect a person’s quality of life. In comments received during consultation on the previous draft guidance, patients and carers described migraine as an invisible disability that affects all aspects of life including family, social activities, mental health, finances, education and.

“Rimegepant is the first oral treatment for migraine to be recommended by NICE and for many thousands of people it is likely to be a welcome and more convenient addition to existing options for a condition that is often overlooked and undertreated,” Knight added.

Current treatment options for preventing migraine include drugs that are used for treating other conditions, such as beta-blockers, antidepressants and epilepsy medications. However, these treatments can have significant side-effects and can be ineffective for some people.

NICE expects to publish final guidance on rimegepant for preventing episodic migraines in July.