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Epilepsy Facts From the BIO Investor Forum

  • 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.