Understanding the Treatment Benefits of Potassium Channel Activator BHV-7000: Irfan Qureshi, MD

WATCH TIME: 4 minutes

"There are many antiseizure medicines that are approved that all cause burdensome CNS (central nervous system) adverse effects. Things like somnolence and cognitive impairment. Patients don’t like those side effects, they prevent them from having a high quality of life and be able to do the things they want to do."

Over the years, the treatment options, both pharmacological and nonpharmacological, have expanded greatly for patients with epilepsy. The recently concluded 2023 American Epilepsy Society (AES) annual meeting, held December 1-5, in Orlando, Florida, was a testament to the field’s progress, with hundreds of research projects spanning various topics from antiseizure medications to dietary approaches and much more. For Biohaven Pharmaceutical, the company presented several data on its investigational agent BHV-7000, a novel, selective Kv7.2/7.3 potassium channel activator.

In a first-in-human phase 1 study assessing the agent in healthy volunteers, BHV-7000 was shown to be safe and well tolerated at single doses up to 100 mg and multiple doses to 40 mg daily for 15 days. In the single-ascending dose (SAD) and multiple-ascending dose (MAD) cohorts, 61 patients aged 18 to 55 years received either BHV-7000 (n = 46) or placebo (n = 15). Across the dosing groups in the SAD and MAD cohorts, investigators observed low rates of central nervous system (CNS)-related adverse events (AEs), with a majority of observed AEs mild in severity.

To learn more about the significance of the data presented, NeurologyLive^® sat down with Irfan Qureshi, MD, chief medical officer at Biohaven. Qureshi discussed the safety profile observed with BHV-7000, its mechanism of action, and why it could potentially be a more feasible and favorable treatment option for patients with continual seizures.

Click here for more coverage of AES 2023.

REFERENCE
1. Awsare B, Lerner J, Ashbrenner E, et al. A first in human phase 1 study evaluating the safety and tolerability of BHV-7000, a novel, selective Kv7.2/7.3 potassium channel activator, in healthy adults. Presented at: AES 2023; December 1-5; Orlando, FL. Abstract 3.265