Rufinamide (Banzel) was designated as an orphan drug for use in the treatment of seizures that are caused by Lennox—Gastaut syndrome in patients older than four in 2004 by the FDA (Food and Drug Adminsitration).¬¬¬¬¬1 Lennox—Gastaut syndrome (LGS) is a epileptic disease, commonly found in children, that is characterized a high rate of injury from seizures as well as a wide range of treatment-resistant seizures. In the past treatments were inadequate, leaving patients without much, but after the discovering of rufinamide and its use to help treat LGS seizures it was adopted as an orphan drug. Orphan drugs are drugs that are in development that could exhibit promise for the treatment of rare diseases. These diseases are ones that affect fewer than two-hundred thousand people in the US or that affect more than two-hundred thousand people, but the company does not to make a profit after costs of development and marking of drug are taken in.2 In 2008 rufinamide was approved for adjunctive treatment for LGS related seizures in patients older than the age of four. This was the first time that a new anti-epileptic medication was available for treatment in the US with an initial
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Common drugs that will do this are carbamazepine and phenobarbital which have a minor effect on rufinamide metabolism.10 The medication is eliminated through the urine a majority of the time and has a half-life somewhere between six to ten
Common drugs that will do this are carbamazepine and phenobarbital which have a minor effect on rufinamide metabolism.10 The medication is eliminated through the urine a majority of the time and has a half-life somewhere between six to ten