Willingness to Pay Study for Migraine Medications in Argentina

INTRODUCTION: Migraine is a neurological disorder, typified by recurrent, throbbing headaches, generally localized on one side of the head, accompanied by symptoms including nausea, phonophobia and photophobia. According to the WHO, migraine has a yearly prevalence of between 3% and 24.6% of the world’s population and its treatment and diagnosis are far from optimal.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to develop a willingness-to-pay study of migraine therapies in Argentina.

METHODS: It required 3 stages: stage one consisted in conducting research in databases of different antimigraine treatments in Argentina that was used to identify the attributes included in the surveys, and then a price benchmark of the relevant alternatives was defined. In the second stage, a questionnaire with different options and attributes of anti-migraine treatments was designed applying the conjoint analysis methodology. Lastly, the information of patients with chronic and episodic migraine was collected and analyzed, detailing demographic, diagnosis, treatment, and willingness to pay aspects.

RESULTS: 185 patients submitted complete surveys, from which 64% have less than 8 monthly migraine episodes. Paracetamol, Ergotamine+Dipyrone+Caffeine and Ibuprofen were the most used treatments. The efficacy of treatment is the attribute with highest weight according to importance, followed by the time to pain relief. More precisely, for preventive treatment, effectiveness is the most important attribute when choosing a migraine product, and the greatest utility for the patients is provided by products with a price between USD 41.91 and USD 211.09 per month. For acute treatment, price is the attribute considered the most important when choosing a product, and it becomes more important as the years since diagnosis go by. Considering the average salary, the willingness to pay was between 31% and 20% of the estimated wage.

CONCLUSIONS: While other attributes are relevant, price remains the most important attribute, highlighting the value of this kind of studies.