Epilepsy News and Research

Latest Epilepsy News and Research

Invida, Roche partner to commercialize primary care products

Invida Group Pte Ltd, the leading specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the commercialization of healthcare products throughout Asia Pacific, today announced that it has entered into a partnership agreement with Roche for the commercialization and marketing of that company's primary care portfolio throughout Korea.

1 Apr 2011

Vertex announces final results from Phase 3 REALIZE study against HCV

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated today announced final results from its pivotal Phase 3 REALIZE study that evaluated people with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C whose prior treatment with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin was unsuccessful either because they relapsed, had a partial response or had a null response.

1 Apr 2011

AAN honors Mayo Clinic researcher with John Dystel Prize for MS work

The American Academy of Neurology is awarding the 2011 John Dystel Prize for Multiple Sclerosis Research to Brian G. Weinshenker, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and a Fellow with the AAN.

1 Apr 2011

Vertex announces interim results from VX-222 ongoing Phase 2 study against hepatitis C

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated today announced interim results from an ongoing Phase 2 study designed to assess the safety and tolerability of 12-week response-guided treatment regimens with its polymerase inhibitor, VX-222, and its protease inhibitor, telaprevir, in combination with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin in people with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C who were new to treatment.

31 Mar 2011

New stereo-EEG method can detect epileptic foci during surgeries

The neurosurgery department of HUCH has started to utilize stereo-EEG method for localizing the epileptic focus in severe epilepsy for epilepsy surgery purposes. The department is also getting ready to introduce the so-called deep brain stimulation therapy in the treatment of epilepsy.

30 Mar 2011

Valeant receives European Commission marketing authorization for Trobalt

Meda's partner for retigabine, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., today announced that the European Commission has granted the marketing authorization for Trobalt™ (retigabine) in the epilepsy therapy area.

30 Mar 2011

Positive results from Vertex VX-770 Phase 3 trial against CF

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated today announced positive results from a 24-week analysis of the ongoing Phase 3 ENVISION study of VX-770, an oral medicine in development that targets the defective protein that causes cystic fibrosis.

30 Mar 2011

EC grants marketing authorization for GSK, Valeant's Trobalt to treat epilepsy

GlaxoSmithKline and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. announced today that the European Commission has granted marketing authorisation for Trobalt as an adjunctive treatment of partial onset seizures, with or without secondary generalisation in adults aged 18 years and above with epilepsy.

30 Mar 2011

Study: Marijuana use may affect cognitive skills in patients with MS

Any possible pain relief that marijuana has for people with multiple sclerosis may be outweighed by the drug's apparent negative effect on thinking skills, according to research published in the March 29, 2011, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

29 Mar 2011

Alternative anti-inflammatory approach to epilepsy management

If common anticonvulsant drugs fail to manage epileptic seizures, then perhaps the anti-inflammatory route is the way to go. That's according to Mattia Maroso and colleagues from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, Italy, who found that giving mice repeated doses of a specific enzyme inhibitor significantly reduced both chronic epileptic activity and acute seizures.

28 Mar 2011

Findings conflict with traditional view of how epileptic seizures begin

The first study to examine the activity of hundreds of individual human brain cells during seizures has found that seizures begin with extremely diverse neuronal activity, contrary to the classic view that they are characterized by massively synchronized activity.

28 Mar 2011

Major breakthrough in brain signal processing

A team of Neuroscientists from NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, have made a major breakthrough in understanding how signals are processed in the human brain.

28 Mar 2011

Researchers identify gene that can predict hypersensitivity to epilepsy drug

Research published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine. A multinational team of scientists led by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the University of Liverpool has identified a gene that could indicate if epilepsy patients starting a common drug treatment are likely to experience side-effects ranging from a mild skin irritation to the potentially fatal Steven-Johnson Syndrome.

25 Mar 2011

Children with epilepsy more likely to have psychiatric symptoms

A newly published report reveals that children with epilepsy are more likely to have psychiatric symptoms, with gender a determining factor in their development.

25 Mar 2011

Cardiac pacing may help epilepsy patients with seizure-related falls

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that cardiac pacing may help epilepsy patients with seizure-related falls due to ictal asystole, an unusual condition in which the heart stops beating during an epileptic seizure. The study was recently published in the journal Epilepsia.

24 Mar 2011

Researchers develop new epileptic seizure-detection method

Researchers at Concordia University have pioneered a computer-based method to detect epileptic seizures as they occur - a new technique that may open a window on the brain's electrical activity.

24 Mar 2011

Biologists decipher molecular code regulating availability of brain channel linked to neuronal excitability

A key question in protein biochemistry is how proteins recognize "correct" interaction partners in a sea of cellular factors. Nowhere is that more critical to know than in the brain, where interactions governing channel protein activity can alter an organism's behavior.

23 Mar 2011

Researcher to look for genes that can suppress epileptic seizures in fruit flies

"Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration" - is the name of a rare and competitive grant that Reenan recently won from the National Institutes of Health. Beginning April 1, Reenan will use the four-year, $1.3-million award to look for genes that can suppress seizures in fruit flies that he has cleverly engineered to mimic human epilepsy.

22 Mar 2011

Study: Stem cell transplant may benefit patients with rapidly progressive MS

A long term study reports about the effectiveness of replacing bone marrow, purposely destroyed by chemotherapy, with autologous stem cell rescue for people with aggressive forms of multiple sclerosis.

22 Mar 2011

Study identifies gene linked to higher risk of multiple sclerosis in children

Canadians have one of the highest rates of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in the world with approximately 1,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Primarily striking in adulthood, physicians and researchers with the Canadian Pediatric Demyelinating Diseases Network (CPDDN), a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary group, have found that MS is being increasingly diagnosed in children.

21 Mar 2011