Dan Barber, MBA: Advantages of Diazepam Buccal Soluble Film Formulation

“We are the only oral, completely non-invasive product in this space…we think that giving patients the ability to take a product that doesn’t require any invasion is a huge step forward.”

Currently, diazepam is available as a generic, though its mainstay use in epilepsy has been as an abortive therapy during uncontrolled seizure clusters. Its main formulation is a rectal gel, which has limited use due to its invasiveness and stigma associated with the delivery method.

As well, its oral formulation has varying degrees of absorption which do not do well enough to halt these clusters. Now, however, Aquestive Therapeutics has developed a buccal film solution of the drug, allowing for an instantaneously dissolving film strip to be placed into the mouth as an alternative to the available methods.

In a comparator pharmacokinetic trial, presented at the American Epilepsy Society’s (AES) annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, the blood levels from the therapy were shown to be equivalent to not only the required amount but during both the ictal and periictal stages.

Dan Barber, MBA, the SVP, and chief strategy and development officer at Aquestive Therapeutics, sat with NeurologyLive at the meeting to discuss the development of the therapy and the company’s hopes for providing both patients and providers with a more favorable, and still efficacious, option for seizure clusters.