OBJECTIVES: Migraine is a common neurological disease, which affects more than 20% of the Portuguese population. People with migraine incur more direct costs than those without the disease. Migraine has also a profound and limiting impact at work with significant indirect costs (absenteeism and presenteeism). Nevertheless, migraine is still underdiagnosed and undertreated. We aimed to develop a calculator tool to estimate (1) the burden of migraine in patients with previous prophylactic treatment failures where a higher unmet need exists and (2) the potential effect of erenumab on migraine costs and hospital performance indicators.

METHODS: We performed a rapid literature review to collect available data around migraine that could be used in the tool for the Portuguese context. Several sources were used including non-interventional studies, clinical trials, cost-of-illness studies, National Institute of Statistics and Portuguese National Health Service (NHS) transparency platform. The calculator tool was developed and validated in Excel.

RESULTS: We were able to develop a tool with the following calculation features: (1) number of migraine patients with previous prophylactic treatment failures being followed by neurologists at Portuguese NHS hospitals; (2) number of healthcare professionals at Portuguese NHS hospitals suffering from migraine and with previous prophylactic treatment failures, (3) economic burden of patients with migraine, (4) impact of erenumab on direct and indirect costs, and (5) impact scenarios of erenumab on hospital performance indicators.

CONCLUSIONS: This customisable calculator tool enables a clear understanding of the economic burden of migraine and the impact of treating patients with erenumab at NHS hospitals. Such a tool is expected to provide useful insights to critical stakeholders who are involved in decision-making and contribute to an optimized resource allocation.