Epilepsy drug Sabril now approved in United States
Monday, August 24th, 2009
The anticonvulsant Sabril (vigabatrin) was approved by the FDA last Friday for the treatment of epilepsy and infantile spasms. The drug was already available in Canada, the U.K., Denmark and Mexico.
You can buy and compare low cost prices on Sabril from trusted Canadian online pharmacies here.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Sabril is the first drug approved in the United States for infantile spasms, a terrible disease that can cause babies to have hundreds of spasms in a day.
The onset of infantile spasms usually occurs between the ages of four and eight months. The seizures are characterized by a sudden bending forward of the body and a stiffening of the arms and legs. U.S. doctors have used prednisone to treat the condition to date, with limited success.
Here’s video of a baby named Kailani having infantile spasms:
Although infantile spasms generally clear up by age 5, patients are prone to other forms of epilepsy later in life.
In addition to infantile spasms, Sabril is approved to treat epilepsy sufferers with so-called “complex partial seizures,” which affect about 1 million Americans.
As the Times points out, there are reasons the FDA took its time to OK Sabril:
The drug … is not perfect. As many as 30% of those who use it suffer from a loss of peripheral vision, although it does not affect central vision and such tasks as reading. Patients who use the drug will have to be monitored very closely for loss of vision…
The Times adds that many U.S. parents have been buying Sabril from Canadian pharmacies for years to treat infantile spasms.
