A new miracle pill could provide much needed relief from a debilitating condition for almost 200,000 patients. The NHS has been given the green light to prescribe a daily migraine tablet.
It is planned around 170,000 people will benefit from the drug after an NHS spending watchdog recommended it for England for the first time. Atogepant, which is sold under the brand name Aquipta, works by blocking the receptor of a protein known to cause inflammation and migraine.
Currently the only drugs that provide similarly “effective” relief have to be injected, making them inaccessible to some. This would “offer more choice” to those suffering from chronic migraines.
Aquipta was recommended under new final draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice). Nice is expected to publish its final guidance on the drug next month, if there are no appeals made.
The recommendation comes after a clinical study found it to be effective in up to 61 percent of patients.
Helen Knight, director of medicines evaluation at Nice, explained: “Currently, the most effective options for people with chronic migraines who have already tried three preventative treatments are drugs that need to be injected.
“The committee heard from patient experts that some people cannot have injectable treatments, for example because they have an allergy or phobia of needles.”
Ms Knight said patients with chronic migraines, classified as those that happen on more than 15 days of the month, “would welcome an oral treatment”.
She added that Aquipta also “offers more choice” for people who suffer episodic migraines (happening on fewer than 15 days of the month).
Now a migraine charity has called for “swift” access to the drug to allow patients with the debilitating condition to “benefit from them as quickly as possible”. According to The Migraine Trust, around 10 million adults in the UK are living with the condition.
The charity’s chief executive, Rob Music, said: “A migraine attack can be incredibly debilitating. Symptoms can include intense head pain, loss of or changes to the senses, and lack of ability to carry out day-to-day life.
“It is positive to see even more therapies emerging for people with migraine as many still rely on treatments developed for other conditions.
“We now need to ensure access is swift so that migraine patients can benefit from them as quickly as possible.”
Aquipta will be an option for people who have at least four migraine days a month, and who have tried at least three other treatments which have proven unsuccessful.
Health minister Andrew Stephenson commented: “Migraines affect millions of people in this country and this new treatment will help prevent recurring migraine attacks when other medicines have failed.
“It will allow more people whose daily life is affected by this painful, debilitating condition to manage their migraines more effectively and to live their lives to the fullest.”
Nice advises that Aquipta should be stopped after 12 weeks if chronic migraines do not reduce by at least 30 percent and episodic migraine by at least 50 percent.
