• Home
  • News and Stories
  • 2020 Epilepsy Pipeline Virtual Conference - August 27-29, 2020 Media Tip Sheet

2020 Epilepsy Pipeline Virtual Conference - August 27-29, 2020 Media Tip Sheet

[scald=36661:sdl_editor_representation]
 

 

Epilepsy News From: Monday, August 24, 2020

Innovative Therapies Competing at the 9th Annual Shark Tank Competition

Inspired by the television show “Shark Tank,” the Epilepsy Foundation’s annual competition invites entrepreneurs from around the world to pitch their products and compete with five other finalists for funding. The winners will use the funding in the development and commercialization of a new product, technology, or therapeutic concept to benefit the epilepsy community. The competition takes place on August 27 at 4 pm ET.

Innovation & Action to END EPILEPSY® Community Forum

A virtual community day organized by, and for, people affected by epilepsy to support them and their loved ones on their epilepsy journey. This year’s free event will highlight the latest updates in telemedicine, genetic testing, SUDEP, and cannabidiol. Featured speakers include Victor and Libby Boyce, parents of the late Disney Channel star Cameron Boyce who a year ago, passed away from Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). The forum is taking place on August 29 at 11 am ET.

COVID-19’s Impact on People with Epilepsy

Matteo Lai, Empatica’s CEO, will present an update on Embrace and its seizure detection system. Embrace is currently the only FDA-approved wearable seizure detection device for epilepsy available in the U.S. How is COVID-19 going to impact the lifestyle of people living with epilepsy? How can remote monitoring technology help patients, physicians and pharmaceutical companies?

Monitoring Brain Health Remotely

Epitel is developing a wearable sensor that can be used to remotely monitor brain health. CEO Mark Lehmkuhle describes how Epitel sensors are able to detect seizures that are difficult for people living with epilepsy to report in seizure diaries. Epitel was recently selected as one of 15 companies to participate in the very first cohort of the MedTech Innovator Pediatric Accelerator program.

Potential of RNA-genetic Medicines

Stoke Therapeutics' Chief Medical Officer, Barry Ticho, M.D., Ph.D., will present the company's efforts to pioneer a new generation of RNA-based genetic medicines. Unlike other emerging approaches that focus on replacing, repairing or editing a faulty gene, Stoke aims to restore missing proteins by increasing – or stoking – protein output from healthy genes. Dr. Ticho will discuss the company's proprietary TANGO platform and how it is being applied to the development of STK-001, a potential new medicine for Dravet syndrome, and its potential application to additional genetic epilepsies and other severe genetic diseases.

Moving Reformulated Medicines Forward

Shaped by insights from patients’ individual experiences, UCB balances science and innovation to identify solutions that address specific unmet needs. Mike Davis, Head of U.S. Neurology, UCB Pharma, along with Jacqueline French, MD, Chief Medical and Innovation Officer, Epilepsy Foundation with Greg Went, PhD, Former CEO of Adamas Pharmaceuticals, will moderate a panel discussion on approaches to reformulated medicines.

Study Results Presentations

  • Marinus Pharmaceuticals Clinical Stage Drug Phase II: Joe Hulihan, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Marinus Pharmaceuticals, will discuss results of a Phase 2 study of Ganaxolone in 17 patients with refractory status epilepticus who had previously failed treatment with other IV antiseizure medications. The median time to status epilepticus cessation was five minutes, and no patients advanced to the next stage of treatment with IV anesthetic drugs. A Phase 3, placebo-controlled trial in 125 patients with refractory status epilepticus will begin before the end of the third quarter of this year.
  • Epihunter’s Interim Study Results: Epihunter is the first epilepsy seizure tracker focused on absence seizures. It uses a small, noninvasive EEG wearable that connects with a smartphone running an Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm. Epihunter will present interim results of an international validation study, comparing epihunter with in-hospital video EEG recordings. The results show epihunter is almost as good as clinical experts to pick up absence seizures, with epihunter catching 61 of 74 expert detections, and only 1 false detection every 42 hours.
  • Byteflies First Study Results: Byteflies has partnered with UCB Pharma to bring small EEG-based wearables to clinical trials and clinical practice. The SeizeIT2 multicenter trial is actively recruiting, and will be presenting first results for wearable monitoring of generalized and focal seizures.
  • UNEEG Latest Study Results: Currently, neurologists struggle with a significant problem of understanding the seizure burden for patients. UNEEG medical has developed a novel device for ultra, long-term brain monitoring in a way that is described by the patients as discreet, non-constraining and easy-to-use. UNEEG will present latest results from a study where the device was worn for 8 months. The device is CE-marked for the European market and a study toward FDA-approval will soon commence.
  • Soticlestat Phase II ELEKTRA Study: Takeda Pharmaceuticals Mahnaz Asgharnejad PharmD, VP Clinical Development, will discuss positive topline results from the randomized Phase 2 ELEKTRA study of soticlestat in children with Dravet syndrome (DS) or Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS). Soticlestat is a potent, highly selective, oral, first-in-class inhibitor of the enzyme cholesterol 24-hydroxylase (CH24H). It is being investigated by Ovid and Takeda for the treatment of rare developmental and epileptic encephalopathies (DEEs), a group of highly refractory epilepsy syndromes including DS and LGS.

# # #

 

*The Epilepsy Foundation has provided grant funding to many of the companies presenting at Pipeline, including Empatica, UNEEG, Epitel and EpiHunter. 

Contact Name

Jackie Aker

Contact Phone

(310) 846-9272

Contact Email

jaker@efa.org

Reviewed Date

Monday, August 24, 2020

Sign Up for Emails

Stay up to date with the latest epilepsy news, stories from the community, and more.