Inter-Country Cost-Effectiveness Differences Between Naratriptan and Rizatriptan for the Acute Migraine in the Netherlands and Spain

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in cost-effectiveness results of naratriptan and rizatriptan therapy for acute migraine attacks between two Western European countries, The Netherlands and Spain. Methods: cost-effectiveness analysis from the healthcare financer perspective, in the context or primary care, in The Netherlands and Spain, using a model based on a decision tree, which incorporates the direct healthcare costs and the probabilities associated with each of the possible outcomes. The average cost-effectiveness ratio (ACER) and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) were obtained. Results: rizatriptan resulted to be more efficient than naratriptan in terms of cost-effectiveness in both countries. Close ACER results for both drugs in both countries were found, specially regarding naratriptan, but their ICER results show wider variations. Our results suggest that inter-country variations in cost-effectiveness could require a detailed analysis for each drug or groups of them.