ExonHit expands neuro research to epilepsy

France's ExonHit Therapeutics is expanding its therapeutic research activities in neurological disorders to include epilepsy.

"An active screening program is underway with the aim of advancing a  lead candidate to preclinical development by 2011," stated Loic Maurel,  president of the firm's management board, adding: "epilepsy represents  an interesting market opportunity: it affects 50 million people  worldwide, and epileptic seizures remain insufficiently controlled in a  lot of patients."

ExonHit has several ongoing drug development projects geared towards the  treatment of neurological disorders. The most advanced compound, EHT  0202, its lead candidate in Alzheimer's disease, is undergoing Phase IIa  trials. Based on promising data obtained in several animal epilepsy  models, ExonHit last year initiated a new research program, EHT 207, to  screen new compounds with a mechanism of action similar to EHT 0202. The  latter showed efficacy in several in vivo epilepsy models, and the  objective of the EHT 207 program is to build off of these initial  results and derive a series of new chemical entities with markedly  improved efficacy, the firm says.