Ushering in a New Era of Migraine Treatments

Most of us know someone who has suffered through a migraine attack—but without living through one ourselves, can we fully grasp the impact of the disease? When I came back to Lilly last year, I admit that I didn’t understand the physical, emotional and even economic challenges of migraine.

Earlier this past fall, my colleagues and I spent a day with our partners at the Diamond Headache Clinic – the oldest practicing headache and pain center located in Chicago – to better understand how their team of headache specialists not only serves, but advocates for, each person with migraine they treat.

One of the appointments I sat in on was with a young woman just entering college, who told the physician about her experience of multiple migraine attacks every single week, despite her current course of treatment. Her mother, worried, asked the doctor, “What else can we do?”

Understanding the challenges of migraine

Migraine isn’t simply a headache. Rather, it is a disabling, neurologic disease that affects more than 36 million Americans and is the sixth highest cause of years of life lost due to disability. According to the Migraine Research Foundation, healthcare and lost productivity costs associated with migraine are estimated to be as high as $36 billion annually in the U.S.

Despite this impact, there has been limited pharmacologic innovation in the treatment of migraine over the last 20 years, and the disease remains under-recognized and under-treated. Often unpredictable and many times triggered by everyday factors, treatment for this disease requires thinking beyond the management of pain. It requires an ongoing dialogue between a patient and healthcare provider, and a holistic approach by the physician to assess the unique needs of a person living with migraine.

While visiting with this mother and daughter, I listened carefully to the series of questions asked by her headache specialist. I was struck by the myriad of medicines being used to treat migraine, and the seemingly endless decisions faced by patients and healthcare providers.

Yet, people may go years without finding the right treatment.

Developing solutions for those in need

As part of our “research without walls” philosophy, experts at Lilly have spent more than 25 years tirelessly working to identify new treatments for migraine. For some of our scientists, they have spent their entire careers at Lilly searching for a treatment that works.

Across our nearly 142-year history, Lilly has been committed to bringing life-changing medicines to those who need them, advancing the understanding and management of disease, and providing meaningful support to patients living with illness—and to the people who care for them.

Spending time with the specialists at Diamond Headache Clinic allowed me to see first-hand that every patient is different, and especially in migraine, there is no treatment that’s “one size fits all.” We are excited to be a part of ushering in a new era of potential choices for people with migraine, and hope to soon be able to equip physicians with options that may help address the unique and varied needs of those with migraine.