Cenobamate’s Efficacy Profile in Treating Seizures: William Rosenfeld, MD

WATCH TIME: 7 minutes

"I’ll go out on a limb and say that I think within the not-too-distant future, it will probably be almost mandatory that you try cenobamate as one of those drugs you try before seizure surgery. Obviously, that will be up for opinion and debate, but I think that with the efficacy numbers we’ve seen with the 20%-35% seizure-free rate, that’s quite good news.”

Cenobamate (Xcopri; SK Life Science), an FDA-approved medication for the treatment of partial-onset seizures, has gained significant traction within the space since its approval in 2019. The safety and efficacy of the sodium channel antagonist were established in 2 pivotal trials (Study 013 and Study 017), but since then, there have been several additional studies and post hoc analyses which have further expanded on its known profile.

That trend continued at the 2021 American Epilepsy Society (AES) Annual Meeting, December 3-7, in Chicago, Illinois, where the company presented 6 abstracts that looked at the drug in number of different settings. Among them included research on the effectiveness of cenobamate in patients who did not respond to a previous epilepsy-related surgery, as well as the drug’s impact based on focal seizure subtypes.

William Rosenfeld, MD, neurologist, Comprehensive Epilepsy Care Center for Children and Adults, in St. Louis, Missouri, has been a part of the clinical development of cenobamate as an author on several pre- and post-approval studies. At AES 2021, NeurologyLive® caught up with Rosenfeld to discuss the presentations in detail and the significance of some of the findings. He also provided an overview on the progress made since the FDA greenlight the antiseizure medication.

For more coverage of AES 2021, click here.