Jacqueline A. French, MD: Clinical Experience With Cenobamate

“I find that it really depends, for clinicians, on their early experience with a drug. I’ve already had that experience…so I enrolled my first 10 patients and I have to say I have a couple who are doing extremely well. That’s my personal experience.”

After the FDA approved cenobamate (Xcopri; SK Life Science) for the treatment of partial-onset seizures in adults, SK Life Sciences announced that it is expected to become available in Q2 2020 following a scheduling review by the DEA. These long-term safety data were collected from the ongoing open-label extension study of phase 2, double-blind, 12-week, placebo-controlled trial (NCT01397968).¹

One of the physicians who has had an early exposure to this therapy in the treatment of patients with epilepsy is Jacqueline A. French, MD, professor of neurology, NYU Langone Medical Center. Having been involved in the clinical development of the sodium channel antagonist, she was able to share her experiences with NeurologyLive at the 73^rd annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society (AES), December 6-10, 2019, in Baltimore, Maryland.

French discussed her expectations for how this therapy will be utilized by physicians once it hits the market, and shared her perspective on what its possible impact might be with certain patients who are unable to achieve seizure control.

For more coverage of AES 2019, click here.

REFERENCE

French JA, Chung SS, Krauss GL, et al. Long-term safety of adjunctive cenobamate in patients with uncontrolled focal seizures: open-label extension of a randomized clinical study. Presented at: 2019 American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting. December 6-10, 2019; Baltimore, Maryland. Abstract 3.297.