ATLANTA – May 26, 2009 – press release, regulated information – UCB today announced that Vimpat® (lacosamide) C-V , a new antiepileptic drug (AED) is available in the U.S. as an add-on therapy for the treatment of partial-onset seizures in people with epilepsy who are 17 years and older. Vimpat® will be available in U.S. pharmacies by the first week of June 2009.

"The availability of Vimpat® in the U.S. is an important milestone for people living with epilepsy and for UCB," said Rich Denness, Vice-President and General Manager CNS U.S., UCB. "Bringing Vimpat® to U.S. patients underscores UCB's commitment to the epilepsy community and UCB's leadership position in this disease state."

Epilepsy affects approximately six million people in the U.S., Japan, U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain, and it can strike anyone at anytime.

"Vimpat® provides new hope in helping patients move closer to the goal of seizure freedom," said Steven S. Chung, MD, Director of Clinical Epilepsy Research at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. "Vimpat® can help patients across the treatment paradigm, from those recently diagnosed who have not achieved seizure control on current therapy, to those who have tried a variety of medications and are still suffering from frequent seizures."

The unmet medical need

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder that can be life long, and is difficult to control with a single drug:

• In a study of 525 people with epilepsy, less than half (47%) attained seizure control with the first AED
• More than 30% of patients will continue to experience seizures despite trying two or more AEDs

"Vimpat® has a novel mechanism of action, and has been studied in combination with multiple AEDs as well as several commonly used medications with no clinically significant pharmacokinetic drug interactions observed in clinical trials. This demonstrates the importance and potential utility of including Vimpat® in partial onset epilepsy treatment regimens," said Kathleen Bos, MD, vice-president, medical affairs, U.S., UCB.

While treatment with one drug remains the goal of AED therapy and provides adequate control to many patients, almost 40% of patients with epilepsy receive suboptimal seizure control on monotherapy. In these situations, a physician may prescribe different treatments until one is found to provide adequate seizure control for the patient.

However, some studies indicate that when primary therapy is well-tolerated, but does not provide adequate seizure control, adding an additional AED to the current one provides more seizure control than continually switching therapies.

Vimpat® approval based on clinical trials with approximately 1,300 patients