BioCentury
ARTICLE | Emerging Company Profile

Rebuilding the barrier

How Leuvas is targeting and resealing the BBB in epilepsy

October 29, 2015 7:00 AM UTC

Approved therapies for epilepsy control seizures by suppressing firing, but the drugs are ineffective in about one third of patients, produce psychological side effects, and don't address the underlying cause. Leuvas Therapeutics Inc. is targeting the biology of the disease with compounds that restore blood-brain barrier integrity and could treat all epilepsy patients without the side effects.

Leuvas co-founder and CEO Leslie McEvoy told BioCentury that all new drugs approved for epilepsy in the last 30 years have been follow-on anticonvulsants that reduce neuronal excitability to reduce the risk of seizures, which "are a symptom of the disease, not its cause." ...