UCB’s Vimpat gets NHS green light in Wales

The All Wales Medicines Strategy Group has approved NHS funding for the use of UCB’s Vimpat in children with epilepsy.

Paediatric use of Vimpat (lacosamide) was approved by European regulators last September, as an adjunctive therapy for partial-onset (focal) seizures with or without secondary generalisation in patients aged four years and older, on the back of extrapolated data from adults and safety/pharmacokinetics data collected in children.

In Wales, around 10-29 percent of paediatric epilepsy patients experience inadequate seizure control with currently available anti-epileptic drugs, underscoring the need for new treatment options.

"The acceptance of Vimpat for children aged four to 16 in NHS Wales by the AWMSG is an important step forward for the management of paediatric epilepsy, a condition which can present significant challenges to children and their families," said Jeff Wren, Executive Vice-President, head of UCB’s Neurology Patient Value Unit.

Paediatric patients in Scotland have also been given NHS access to the drug following a green light from the Scottish Medicines Consortium last month.

Vimpat was first launched in the EU in September 2008, as adjunctive therapy for the treatment of partial-onset seizures with or without secondary generalisation in adults and adolescents (16-18 years) with epilepsy.

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