UCB announces positive results in Keppra trial

UCB has announced the results of a phase III clinical trial investigating 20-50 mg/kg/day doses of Keppra (levetiracetam) as an adjunctive therapy to threat partial onset seizures in children aged between one month and four years old.

The trial showed that patients administered with the compound exhibited a reduced rate of partial onset seizures when compared with those children receiving a placebo, with 43.1 per cent of Keppra patients showing a reduction in seizure frequency by half in three days.

Keppra is currently indicated in the EU as a monotherapy for partial onset seizures in patients over the age of 16 with newly diagnosed epilepsy, as well as an adjunctive therapy for partial onset seizures in patients over the age of four.

Jesus Eric Pina-Garza, professor of paediatric neurology at Vanderbilt University, said: “In this well-designed randomised trial, Keppra was shown to be more efficacious than placebo in controlling partial seizures in infants and young children with treatment-resistant partial onset epilepsies.”

He added that there have been few of clinical trial investigating the effectiveness of antiepileptics in younger children, with this study being a “welcome addition” to existing scientific data regarding epilepsy in infants.

Last month, UCB reported that idiopathic generalised epilepsy patients administered with Keppra as an adjunctive treatment for tonic-clonic seizures showed a higher rate of freedom from seizures than those receiving a placebo.