Progress report on new antiepileptic drugs: A summary of the Eleventh Eilat Conference (EILAT XI)

The Eleventh Eilat Conference on New Antiepileptic Drugs (AEDs)-EILAT XI, took place in Eilat, Israel from the 6th to 10th of May 2012. About 100 basic scientists, clinical pharmacologists and neurologists from 20 countries attended the conference, whose main themes included “Indications overlapping with epilepsy” and “Securing the successful development of an investigational antiepileptic drug in the current environment”. Consistent with previous formats of this conference, a large part of the program was devoted to a review of AEDs in development, as well as updates on AEDs introduced since 1994. Like the EILAT X report, the current manuscript focuses only on the preclinical and clinical pharmacology of AEDs that are currently in development. These include brivaracetam, 2-deoxy-glucose, ganaxolone, ICA-105665, imepitoin, NAX 801-2, perampanel and other AMPA receptor antagonists, tonabersat, valnoctamide and its homologue sec-propylbutylacetamide (SPD), VX-765 and YK3089. Since the previous Eilat conference, retigabine (ezogabine) has been marketed and four newer AEDs in development (NAX 810-2, SPD, tonabersat and VX-765) are included in this manuscript.