New public drug plan reimbursement for AJOVY®
Teva Canada Welcomes Public Drug Plan Reimbursement by Alberta, Saskatchewan, Québec, Veteran Affairs Canada and the Non-Insured Health Benefits Program for patients prescribed AJOVY® (fremanezumab) for the Preventive Treatment of Migraine in Adults
Public formulary and program coverage makes AJOVY® accessible to more migraine patients across Canada
Montréal, Québec (March 2, 2022) – Teva Canada Limited, a subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., welcomes the recently announced public formulary coverage for AJOVY® (fremanezumab) by Alberta, Saskatchewan, Québec, Veteran Affairs Canada (VAC) and the Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) Program.01-04 AJOVY® is a subcutaneous injection for the preventive treatment of migraine in adults who have at least four migraine days per month. 05 Public formulary coverage will help make AJOVY® accessible to more patients across Canada. Teva Canada hopes that other public drug plans across Canada will soon make AJOVY® available to the eligible patients in their jurisdictions.
“Public coverage opens so many doors for those living with migraine to improve their quality of life; coverage for AJOVY® is an enormous step in the right direction,” said Louise Houle, Executive Director of Migraine Québec. “As an advocate for people with migraine and as a person with chronic migraine, I’m gratified to see this disabling neurological disease get so much attention and to see more access to new treatment options.”
“Migraine impacts every aspect of a person's life and finding the right treatment may require many trials,” said Dr. Elizabeth Leroux, a researcher and neurologist with an expertise in migraine and headache management, and President of the Canadian Headache Society. “As a physician, I want all options to be available to my patients and public coverage is critical for many people to access recent treatments. Provincial coverage for AJOVY® is great news.”
AJOVY® is available in two formats and two dosing regimens, 05 giving prescribers and patients treatment flexibility to help suit their needs. AJOVY® is supported by the AJOVY® Teva Support Solutions® (AJOVY® TSS) Patient Support Program.
“At Teva Canada, we welcome these new provincial formulary listings that afford greater access to AJOVY® and its flexible treatment choices for migraine patients with individualized needs,” said Christine Poulin, General Manager at Teva Canada. “These formulary listings are based on established evidence-based drug funding review processes, and we are pleased for patients and prescribers that AJOVY® met the criteria for listing.”
About Migraine
Migraine is a disabling chronic neurological disease that causes head pain so severe that sufferers often cannot function during an attack. Migraine reduces quality of life and disrupts migraineurs’ ability to perform daily activities. 06-07 It is among the top 10 causes of disability worldwide and the seventh cause of years of life lost to disability. 08-10 In Canada, migraine is most common in women and most common between the ages of 30 and 49. 11 Migraine therefore reduces patients’ quality of life, ability to work, and overall productivity right at the prime of their life. While acute treatment modalities are used to treat migraine attacks when they occur, they do not prevent them. Novel treatments like AJOVY® were specifically designed to actually prevent migraine from occurring.
About AJOVY®
AJOVY® (fremanezumab) is indicated for the preventive treatment of migraine in adults who have at least four migraine days per month. AJOVY® is available as a 225 mg/1.5 mL single-dose injection in an autoinjector or prefilled syringe with two dosing options: 225 mg monthly, administered as one subcutaneous injection; or 675 mg every three months (quarterly), administered as three subcutaneous injections. AJOVY® is intended for patient self-administration after the patient or their caretaker has been trained to administer the product. AJOVY® patients and prescribers are supported by the AJOVY® Teva Support Solutions® Patient Support Program. 05
About Teva Canada
Teva Canada, headquartered in Toronto, has provided affordable healthcare solutions to Canadians for over 50 years, building their trust one prescription at a time with now more than 290,000 12 prescriptions filled each day with our products, representing 1 of every 5 generic prescriptions in Canada. 13 Originally Novopharm Limited, Teva Canada specializes in the development, production, and marketing of high-quality generic prescription pharmaceuticals and, through our branded division, focuses on a diverse line of specialty and biopharmaceutical products in a variety of therapeutic areas such as central nervous system (CNS), respiratory, oncology and rheumatology. Teva Canada’s commitment to helping improve the lives of Canadians also extends to the Teva Caregiver program – providing tools and resources for Canadians navigating the care journey. Teva Canada employs more than 900 professionals, had sales of nearly $1.2 billion 14 in 2021, and markets more than 320 15 products in over 935 SKUs 15 in Canada. We are a proud subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Learn more at www.tevacanada.com.
About Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE and TASE: TEVA) has been developing and producing medicines to improve people’s lives for more than a century. We are a global leader in generic and specialty medicines with a portfolio consisting of over 3,500 products in nearly every therapeutic area. Around 200 million people around the world take a Teva medicine every day, and are served by one of the largest and most complex supply chains in the pharmaceutical industry. Along with our established presence in generics, we have significant innovative research and operations supporting our growing portfolio of specialty and biopharmaceutical products. Learn more at www.tevapharm.com.
Footnotes
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Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec. List of Available from: https://www.ramq.gouv.qc.ca/en/about-us/list-medications
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Saskatchewan Drug Plan information available from: https://formulary.drugplan.ehealthsask.ca/SearchFormulary/
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Alberta Health. Drug Benefit List. Available from: https://idbl.ab.bluecross.ca/idbl/load.do
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Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) Program Available from: https://nihb-ssna.express-scripts.ca/en/0205140506092019/16/160407
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AJOVY® Product Monograph. Teva Canada Limited, Montréal, Quebec – January 19,
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Buse DC, Rupnow MF, Lipton RB. Assessing and managing all aspects of migraine: migraine attacks, migraine-related functional impairment, common comorbidities, and quality of life. Mayo Clin Proc. 2009;84:422–435. doi: 1016/S0025-6196(11)60561-2.
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Lipton RB, Liberman JN, Kolodner KB, et al. Migraine headache disability and health-related quality-of-life: a population-based case-control study from Cephalalgia. 2003;23:441–450. doi: 10.1046/j.1468-2982.2003.00546.x.
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Steiner TJ, Stovner LJ, Birbeck GL. Migraine: the seventh disabler. J Headache 2013;14:1. doi: 10.1186/1129-2377-14-1
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Global Burden of Disease Study Collaborators. Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 301 acute and chronic diseases and injuries in 188 countries, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study Lancet. 2015;386:743– 800. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60692-4.
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Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Global burden of disease visualization Available from: http://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-compare/ Accessed January 2016.
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Ramage-Morin PL, Gilmour Prevalence of migraine in the Canadian household population. Health Rep. 2014;25(6):10–16.
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Source: IQVIA CDH Compuscript TRx MAT Dec
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Source: IQVIA Compuscript Trx MAT 12.
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Source: IQVIA CDH & Compuscript MAT Dec
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Source: Teva Price list January 17, 2022.