Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by hyper-synchronous electrical discharge in the brain. The disease affects approximately 1% of the U.S. population (3 million) with a slightly higher 1-2% worldwide incidence due to less consistent prenatal care. The incidence is also expected to increase in the U.S. due to the aging population.
The current epilepsy drug market is more than $14B world wide. However, 90% of the sales result from non-epilepsy CNS indications including chronic pain. One notable exception is Kepra with over $1B in epilepsy indication sales due to a superior safety profile.
It is estimated that approximately 36% of epilepsy patients are pharmaco-resistant and medically refractive to currently available therapies. New epilepsy drugs with novel mechanisms of actions are needed to treat this large and growing patient population. In addition, over 50% of patients discontinue or are not compliant with current therapies due to epilepsy drug side effects.
In addition, only approximately 150 sales reps are required to detail products to neurologists who specialize in epilepsy disorders, making seizure disorders a potential high margin attractive market for biopharmaceutical companies.