UCB epilepsy drug approved for US market

UCB’s new treatment for epilepsy has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, it has announced.

Vimpat is an anti-epileptic that performed well in clinical trials on patients who have uncontrolled partial onset seizures despite current treatment.

It will be available as oral tablets and also an intravenous infusion and will be launched early next year.

This add-on therapy will only be available for patients who are 17 years or over, it added.

Lead investigator Steven Chung, director of clinical epilepsy research at Barrow Neurological Institute, said having the option of a new drug could offer patients a new hope of gaining control over their seizures.

“Vimpat is unique because it works unlike any other anti-epileptic drug that is currently available,” he continued.

“It should be considered for epilepsy patients who have uncontrolled seizures with their current treatment regimen-no matter how many previous anti-epileptic drugs they’ve tried.”

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder affecting approximately three million people in the US and – according to figures published by Tearfund International – 50 million people worldwide suffer from it.

The European Commission approved Vimpat in August this year, for the adjunctive treatment of partial onset seizures in patients aged 16 and over.

It was launched in Germany and the UK in September and will be launched in other countries in the coming months.