Taro seeks to develop epilepsy treatment

HAWTHORNE, N.Y. Taro Pharmaceutical Industries has begun clinical trials in Canada of a barbiturate drug for treating epilepsy, the Israeli drug maker announced Monday.

Taro said it had started phase 1 trials of T2007, the sodium salt of diphenylbarbituric acid, or DPB. Previous phase 2 studies of a precursor of DPB, T2000, showed improvement in patients with essential tremor, the company said, and last week, the Food and Drug Administration gave it an investigational new drug exemption to permit clinical studies of T2000 in the United States. Taro said the experience with T2000 would facilitate its development of T2007.

The company said animal testing had shown DPB to be as effective as Phenobarbital, which remains the most commonly prescribed drug for epilepsy in the world, despite its sedative side effects.