Eisai gains Swiss approval for Zonegran and Canadian OK for Fycompa

Japanese drug major Eisai (TYO: 4205) says that Zonegran (zonisamide) has been approved by Switzerland’s regulator Swissmedic as a monotherapy for the treatment of partial seizures (with or without secondary generalization) in adults with newly diagnosed epilepsy.

Already a successful add-on therapy, once-daily zonisamide is a second generation anti-epileptic drug (AED) with multiple mechanisms of action and a chemical structure which is unrelated to any other AEDs, the company noted. For patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy, monotherapy is the preferred option for managing their condition as this reduces the potential for adverse drug interactions and encourages treatment compliance, it noted.

"Monotherapy is the optimal treatment approach for managing epilepsy and therefore the availability of zonisamide in this setting will provide newly-diagnosed epilepsy patients with access to this already proven treatment as a first-line option in their care pathway," commented Michel Baulac, Head of Neurology, Universite Paris VI, quoted by Eisai.