Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Jun 17:4:42-51.
doi: 10.1016/j.ensci.2016.06.003. eCollection 2016 Sep.

Antiepileptic drugs in development pipeline: A recent update

Harjeet Kaur  1 , Baldeep Kumar  1 , Bikash Medhi  1
Affiliations
Review

Antiepileptic drugs in development pipeline: A recent update

Harjeet Kaur et al. eNeurologicalSci. .

Abstract

Epilepsy is the most common neurological disorder which significantly affects the quality of life and poses a health as well as economic burden on society. Epilepsy affects approximately 70 million people in the world. The present article reviews the scientific rationale, brief pathophysiology of epilepsy and newer antiepileptic drugs which are presently under clinical development. We have searched the investigational drugs using the key words 'antiepileptic drugs,' 'epilepsy,' 'Phase I,' 'Phase II' and 'Phase III' in American clinical trial registers (clinicaltrials.gov), the relevant published articles using National Library of Medicine's PubMed database, company websites and supplemented results with a manual search of cross-references and conference abstracts. This review provides a brief description about the antiepileptic drugs which are targeting different mechanisms and the clinical development status of these drugs. Besides the presence of old as well as new AEDs, still there is a need of new drugs or the modified version of old drugs in order to make affected people free of seizures. An optimistic approach should be used to translate the success of preclinical testing to clinical practice. There is an urgent need to improve animal models and to explore new targets with better understanding in order to develop the novel drugs with more efficacy and safety.

Keywords: Antiepileptic; Clinical trial; Drug development; Epilepsy; Neuroprotection; Seizures.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Epilepsy classification.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Basic cascade events of pathophysiology of epilepsy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. http://www.fda.gov
    1. Pfizer. NIH/National Library of Medicine; 2015. A 12-month Study to Evaluate the Safety and Tolerability of Pregabalin as Add-on Therapy in Pediatric Subjects 1 month to 16 years of age With Partial Onset Seizures and Pediatric and Adult Subjects 5 to 65 years of age With Primary Generalized Tonic-Clonic Seizures. (Available at: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01463306 [Last accessed 08 June 2015])
    1. GW Research Ltd. NIH/National Library of Medicine; 2016. A Dose-ranging Pharmacokinetics and Safety Study of GWP42003-P in Children With Dravet Syndrome. (Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02091206 [Last accessed 3 April 2016])
    1. SK Life Science. NIH/National Library of Medicine; 2014. A Double-blind, Randomized, Placebo-controlled, Phase 2 Trial of YKP3089 as Adjunctive Therapy in Subjects With Partial Onset Seizures. (Available at: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01866111 [Last accessed 08 June 2015])
    1. GlaxoSmithKline. NIH/National Library of Medicine; 2014. A Long-term, Safety, Tolerability, and Efficacy Study of Retigabine Immediate-release (IR) in Asian Adults With Partial Onset Seizures. (Available at: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01777139 [Last accessed 08 June 2015])