Valeant shares jump on epilepsy trial data

Shares of Valeant Pharma jumped yesterday after the developer announced that its experimental epilepsy treatment retigabine met its primary endpoint in reducing the number of seizures by a statistically significant margin. Data from a second late-stage trial is expected in the second quarter of this year with an NDA expected in the U.S. and Europe by the end of this year.

"These data confirm the efficacy seen with retigabine in earlier clinical trials and put Valeant at the forefront of development of neuronal potassium channel openers for the treatment of epilepsy and other central nervous system diseases," says Michael Pearson, Valeant's chairman and chief executive officer.

- here's the release
- read the AP report