Lilly announces $1m grant for the American Migraine Foundation

Lilly is to provide a $1 million grant to the American Migraine Foundation to sponsor the development of the American Registry for Migraine Research (ARMR).

The ARMR will be a large-scale, publicly-accessible headache registry and biological repository that will contain clinical, biologic and neuroimaging data to further advance the research and discovery of new treatments for migraine.

Migraine is the third-most prevalent and sixth-most disabling medical disorder in the world, and it is the leading cause of all disability attributed to neurological diseases worldwide. Other primary and secondary headache disorders are also highly prevalent and cause substantial burden for people with these diseases, including impaired quality of life and financial cost.

Through this registry, the American Migraine Foundation aims to establish repositories and enrol patients with primary and secondary headache disorders to collect imaging data, genetics information and biologic samples. The American Migraine Foundation will also work to establish and train a larger network of investigative sites to enrol subjects, submit data and access all collected data for specific studies. Data from the registry will be made accessible to all researchers, with grant applications available for high-priority projects.

Ushering in an era of precision medicine

Commenting on receiving the grant from Lilly, American Migraine Foundation Chairman Dr. David Dodick said: “We are enormously grateful for the vision and very generous support from Lilly to help the American Migraine Foundation build and sustain a patient registry and biorepository for migraine and other headache disorders. We believe the knowledge gained from this registry and the potential to identify clinical, laboratory, imaging and genetic biomarkers will usher in an era of precision medicine and generate new targets for generations of patients to come.”

As a platinum sponsor, Lilly will serve as a member of the Corporate Registry Roundtable, working with the American Migraine Foundation and other members to propose topics and analysis areas for the registry, which will be approved by the ARMR Scientific Review Board.

Dr Robert Conley, Distinguished Lilly Scholar and leader of Lilly’s pain development platform, commented: “We are proud to support the American Migraine Foundation’s efforts to establish a registry that will allow researchers to evaluate and compare real-world data that can help transform research in headache disorders, and ultimately help healthcare providers improve outcomes for people living with these devastating disorders.”