padsevonil

Padsevonil (UCB0942) is a first-in-class small molecule antiseizure medication developed by UCB for the treatment of drug-resistant focal-onset seizures. It was designed with a unique dual mechanism of action intended to address high unmet medical needs in epilepsy: it binds with high affinity to all three isoforms of the presynaptic synaptic vesicle protein 2 (SV2A, SV2B, and SV2C) and acts as a partial agonist at the benzodiazepine site of the postsynaptic GABAA receptor. While padsevonil demonstrated a favorable safety profile and numerical improvements in seizure reduction during clinical evaluation, it failed to reach statistical significance for its primary efficacy endpoints in the Phase 2b ARISE trial and the Phase 3 DUET trial. Due to the lack of differentiated efficacy compared to existing treatments, UCB discontinued the clinical development program in 2020.

Other names

padsevonil