Sepracor Asks FDA to Okay Epilepsy Drug
Wade Roush3/31/09
Marlborough, MA-based Sepracor (NASDAQ: SEPR), known mainly for its sleep aid Lunesta, said today that it has applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval of a compound called eslicarbazepine acetate as an adjunct to other therapies in adult epilepsy patients. Sepracor says the sodium-channel blocker—developed by Portuguese pharmaceutical company BIAL-Portela and licensed by Sepracor in 2007—has been tested in a multi-country Phase III study involving more than 1,000 patients. The company, which proposes to market the compound under the trade name Stedesa, estimates the U.S. market for epilepsy drugs at $3.5 billion.
Wade Roush is Xconomy's chief correspondent and editor of Xconomy San Francisco. You can e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/wroush.
