Migraine is a common and disabling condition reported in approximately 12% of the population. In the Global Burden of Disease Study in 2019, migraine was found to be the third highest cause worldwide of years lived with disability. When we consider the Chronic migraine, defined as headache occurring on 15 or more days per month for more than three months, we find that it affects 1% to 2% of the global population. Treatments of migraine is usually based on pharmaceutical drugs, which have contra-indications and severe side effects and often remain ineffective in chronic migraine patients. Neurostimulation is a last treatment option, despite often being more effective than pharma treatments. This is mainly due to the surgical invasiveness of neurostimulators limiting the market to surgically trained physicians, which increases the risks and the costs.
Our vision at TARA is fundamentally based on disrupting the continuum of care and referral pathway by creating a more effective non-surgical solution that reduces cost and risk and therefore enables more physicians to treat more patients. The TARA consortium members are currently developing a novel platform for treating migraine, which will be particularly applicable in resource-restricted environments and will target underserved patients. In particular, the platform consists of 4 elements working together that are (i) an implantable electronic device with neural stimulation, (ii) an ergonomic, minimally invasive, injectable delivery system designed specifically to enable non-surgical physicians to deliver the implant to target anatomical locations, (iii) a wearable device which communicates with and delivers wireless power to the implant and (iv) a mobile app to control the implant.
