Ligand Pharmaceuticals Announces New Topiramate Injection Data Presented at 9th London-Innsbruck Colloquium on Status Epilepticus and Acute Seizures Conference

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: LGND) today announced that its partners at the University of Minnesota (UMN) and CURx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. presented new data on Captisol-enabled Topiramate Injection (IV topiramate), a potential replacement therapy for the treatment of certain emergent neurological conditions, including epilepsy, when oral administration is not feasible.

The poster was featured at the 9th London-Innsbruck Colloquium on Status Epilepticus and Acute Seizures Conference in London, England. The authors presented modeling and simulations of IV topiramate dosing based on previous studies conducted by UMN faculty in healthy research participants and patients. In addition, preliminary pharmacokinetic data was presented from 25 healthy participants in a CURx ongoing randomized, single-center, open-label, cross-over clinical study for an investigational intravenous (IV) formulation of topiramate, an antiseizure and anti-migraine medication.

“The IV formulation of topiramate can be used as replacement therapy; but additionally, small studies in neonates and patients with prolonged seizures indicate it may have a role in treating these conditions if future studies demonstrate benefit,” said James Cloyd, Pharm.D., Director of the Center for Orphan Drug Research at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, co-author of the poster, and a principal investigator on several IV topiramate studies. “Based on our research, we believe clinicians can now properly dose IV topiramate in a variety of clinical situations, including the use of loading doses to rapidly attain targeted plasma drug concentrations in patients when there is a delay in initiating replacement therapy, in patients who are getting topiramate for the first time, and in those taking a co-medication that increases the elimination of topiramate.”

“This poster incorporates preliminary pharmacokinetic data from our recent study in healthy research subjects in which an intravenous dose of topiramate was compared to a dose of oral topiramate to assess safety and the dose of the IV topiramate needed to replicate the plasma concentrations following oral administration,” commented Bernard King, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of CURx and co-author of the poster. “Our findings confirm that IV topiramate can be substituted for an oral dose on a one-to-one basis, thus simplifying replacement therapy.”