NHS health advisers have approved the first treatment for acute migraine in a decision that promises to bring relief to about 13,000 people.
The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has recommended a drug called rimegepant, also known as Vydura, which is made by Pfizer.
Helen Knight, Nice’s director of medicines evaluation, said: “This is the first and only Nice-recommended medicine that can help alleviate the misery of acute migraines and may be considered a step change.”
About one in seven people in the UK experience migraine, which can involve intense, throbbing head pains and is often debilitating and prevents people from undertaking their usual activities. Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting, fatigue and temporarily disturbed vision, which is known as aura, and also acute sensitivity to light, sound and smells.
People who experienced migraines and their carers had told Nice that it was “an invisible disability that affects all aspects of life, including work, education, finances, mental health, social activities and family”, Knight added.
Migraines affect women more than men, possibly because of hormonal changes, and people aged 35-45 in particular.
Nice’s final draft guidance addresses “the high unmet need for treatment options for acute migraine”. About 13,000 people in England and Wales would now be able to obtain the drug through the NHS, it said.
Adults will be able to access rimegepant if they have tried at least two triptans – drugs that are usually used to counter headaches or migraine attacks – but found that they did not banish their symptoms.
Those who cannot take triptans or could not tolerate them, as well as people who have tried nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and paracetamol without success, will also be eligible to be prescribed the drug.
Patients will take it in the form of a wafer that they place under their tongue. It works by preventing the release of a protein around the brain called calcitonin gene-related peptide, which is thought to trigger the excruciating pain.
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Rob Music, the chief executive of the Migraine Trust, said Nice’s guidance “provides people with migraine valuable options to help reduce the pain and length of a migraine attack”.
“It brings new hope,” he added. “It will especially benefit those who have not found a treatment that works, those who get debilitating side-effects – including medicine overuse headache – from them, and those with cardiovascular disease who cannot take existing treatments.”
Currently, people with migraine for whom triptans do not work are referred to a migraine specialist. However, Nice pointed out that there were a limited number of headache centres in the UK and that there were long waiting lists.
