Eisai prepares for Inovelon UK launch

pharmafile | March 7, 2007 | News story | Sales and Marketing |   

Eisai is preparing to launch its new epilepsy treatment Inovelon in the UK after European regulators approved it in January.

Managing director of Eisai UK Dr Paul Hooper told Pharmafocus he hopes to have the product on the market by June.

"It's an orphan drug that treats a very rare and pretty nasty form of epilepsy in children, and we are obviously delighted to bring a product like that to the market," he said.

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Inovelon (rufinamide) received a marketing authorisation from the European Commission for adjunctive therapy in Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome (LGS) in patients aged four and over.

LGS is one of the most severe forms of childhood epilepsy and also one of the hardest to treat. An estimated 11,000 people in Western Europe are affected by LGS, which is thought to account for up to 10% of all childhood epilepsies.

It is often treated with GlaxoSmithKline's Lamictal (lamotrigine) or Sanofi-Aventis' Epilim (sodium valproate), Sabril (vigabatrin) or Fisium (clobazam).

Eisai already has one epilepsy drug on the market. Zonegran (zonisamide) was launched in the UK in 2005 as an adjunctive therapy for adult patients with partial seizures, with or without secondary generalisation.

The company plans to test Zonegran for use in children, something Dr Hooper said could be a challenge because of the difficulty of finding centres of excellence in paediatric neurology across Europe that are set up to conduct clinical trials.

 

 

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