Chronic Migraine sufferers in Canada now have an option to prevent the onset of headaches that occur over 15 days a month and leave patients debilitated. Health Canada has approved BOTOX® (onabotulinumtoxinA) manufactured by Allergan, Inc. as a prophylactic (preventive) treatment for headaches in adult patients with Chronic Migraine who suffer from headaches 15 days or more per month, lasting four hours a day or longer.1
"This is an important clinical advancement benefiting patients in Canada who suffer from Chronic Migraine," says Stu Fowler, President & General Manager, Allergan Canada. "Until now, patients have had to rely on temporary, short-term means of coping with chronic headache pain. The approval of BOTOX® as a preventive treatment for Chronic Migraine now offers neurologists, as well as headache and pain specialists a new, clinically-proven way to manage this debilitating condition."
Based on global estimates, over 270,000* Canadians who are 18 years of age and older are Chronic Migraine sufferers, costing the Canadian economy roughly $1,800** per patient, per year in healthcare spending towards healthcare provider visits, emergency department visits, diagnostic testing and headache-specific medications.2,3
"Chronic Migraine is vastly under recognized and under-diagnosed in Canada, as it is around the world," says neurologist Dr. Jonathan Gladstone, FRCPC, Vice President of the Canadian Headache Society and Director of the Gladstone Headache Clinic in Toronto, Ontario. "The reality is that patients with chronic headaches frequently receive their care primarily from allied-health professionals and are often unaware of the available treatment options to mitigate their migraines. Many migraineurs bounce around the healthcare system without an appropriate diagnosis and/or treatment plan and unfortunately, as a result, they often end up missing work, school, family, recreational and social functions."
In addition to direct healthcare costs, lost productivity and lost work days (absenteeism) account for major sources of indirect costs associated with migraine.4 In a self-reported study of the impact of migraine on work, 28 per cent of migraine sufferers reported working fewer hours as a result of their headaches, 24 per cent chose less demanding work because of their headaches, and 8 per cent actually changed their employment as a result of their headaches.5 In Canada, the cost of migraine in the workplace is approximately $500 million annually.4
"Chronic Migraine causes great disability in people who are affected by this condition, and can reduce a patient's quality of life in proportions that the average person can't even fathom," says Valerie South, Executive Director, Headache Network Canada. "Access to new treatment options, like BOTOX®, that fill the current gap in care is critical to these patients, who suffer with pain for at least half their lives."
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