First-in-class treatments for unmet epilepsy needs 

Our Mission

PrevEp is a team of clinicians and scientists addressing essential needs for:

  • Epilepsy prevention after traumatic brain injury and stroke
  • Non-benzodiazepine treatment of acute repetitive, or prolonged seizures and status epilepticus
  • Treatment of neonatal seizures

 

About PrevEp

We are a US-based biotech company founded by world leaders in epilepsy research with decades of combined experience in the development of new therapies for epilepsy treatment and prevention. The founders combine deep expertise in basic science, drug development and clinical trials in epilepsy. The intimate collaboration between preclinical and clinical team members enables PrevEp to rapidly translate  preclinical discoveries to clinical trials.

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Pavel Klein

Chief Executive Officer, Co-founder

Wolfgang Löscher

Chief Scientific Officer, Co-founder

Chris Rundfeldt

Chief Operating Officer,  Co-founder

Detlev Boison

Chief Development Officer
Co-founder

Alexander Rotenberg

Biomarker Development, Co-founder

Matthias Koepp

Vice President, Product Development, Co-founder

Eugen Trinka

Vice President, Clinical Trials, Co-founder

Strategy

EPILEPSY PREVENTION BY NETWORK PHARMACOLOGY. Epileptogenesis is a complex process that is unlikely to be arrested by a single drug. PrevEp leverages recent discoveries in network pharmacology to design combination therapies that target a multitude of epileptogenic mechanisms, in the earliest stages after brain injury. Our lead combinations of safe FDA-cleared molecules are well-tolerated and have proven to block epileptogenesis in predictive rodent models.

 

ACUTE REPETITIVE SEIZURE TREATMENT BY INTRANASAL SELETRACETAM SPRAY. At-home treatments for acute repetitive seizures are benzodiazepines, which carry a risk of sedation and respiratory depression. PrevEp developed a novel nasal spray formulation of seletracetam, a highly potent anti-seizure drug, to enable safe and effective non-benzodiazepine acute repetitive seizure treatment.

 

NEONATAL SEIZURE TREATMENT BY INTRAVENOUS TOPIRAMATE. Neonatal seizures increase mortality and risk of lifelong brain damage. A safe and FDA-approved drug, topiramate suppresses neonatal seizures when other anti-seizure medications fail, but was not available in injectable form. PrevEp developed a novel intravenous topiramate formulation with orphan drug designation for neonatal seizure treatment

Advisory Board​

Our company concept is supported by leading epilepsy ambassadors

Jacqueline A. French, M.D.​

Professor of Neurology and Director of clinical trials at NYU Langone‘s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center; Chief Scientific Officer, Epilepsy Foundation

Michael A. Rogawski, M.D., PhD.

Professor of Neurology and Pharmacology, Director of Institute for Neurotherapeutics, University of California, Davis 

Elizabeth Garofalo, M.D.

Principal for EAG Pharma Consulting LLC; former SVP, Novartis Parmaceutical Coorporation

Annamaria Vezzani, Ph.D.

Professor of Neuroscience, Mario Negri Institute, Milan, Italy

Henrik Klitgaard, Ph.D.

Previous Vice President, Neurosciences Therapeutic Area, UCB Biopharma

Enrique Carrazana, M.D.

SVP, strategic development, Neurelis

Partnerships

Support​

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If you have questions or need to reach us, you can contact us here.

Pavel Klein
CEO
co-founder

Pavel Klein, M.D. has >20 years clinical epilepsy research experience including as the PI of the largest phase 3 randomized clinical trial of a new anti seizure medication and as the PI of NIH and DOD- funded clinical PTE prevention  trial and biomarker studies, recently leading a consortium of 10 US and European trauma/epilepsy centers.

Team Member

Wolfgang Löscher

Chief Scientific Officer

co-founder

Wolfgang Löscher, D.VM., Ph.D. has >40 years translational epilepsy research experience. He discovered the antiepileptic properties  of levetiracetam that resulted in  the development of the most used anti-seizure medication world-wide. Dr Löscher has an unmatched record in preclinical epilepsy drug development. He is a highly decorated epilepsy scientist with extensive academic and industry experience in drug development and one of 6 most widely cited epilepsy researchers in the world.
 

Team Member

Chris Rundfeldt

Vice President, Toxicology and Regulatory Affairs

Co-founder

Chris Rundfeldt, D.VM. has >30 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr Rundfeldt discovered a potent antiseizure medication, retigabine (EU) / ezogabine (US), with a unique new mechanism of action (the KCNQ/KV7 channel opening), initiating its development, approval and commercialization by GlaxoSmithKline, and opening the path for the current second generation of KCNQKV7 channel modulators for treatment of epilepsy. Dr. Rundfeldt subsequently became independent drug development expert. He supported, among other companies, the Danish biotech start up, Forward Pharma AS, in their successful IPO at NYSE.

Team Member

Detlev Boison

Chief Development Officer

Co-founder

Detlev Boison, Ph.D. has >25 years translational epilepsy research experience. He is the PI of active antiepileptogenic drug discovery program, and identified a novel molecular target for antiepileptogenic therapy.

Team Member

Alexander Rotenberg

Biomarker Development

Co-founder

Alexander Rotenberg, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Neurology (pediatric epilepsy) at Harvard Medical School, has >15 years of translational and clinical epilepsy experience. He is a leading basic researcher in preclinical post-traumatic epilepsy mechanisms and treatments, and a world leading clinician researcher in the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as a biomarker of brain excitability used in human antiseizure medication proof of concept study testing. He has been the PI of recent DoD and NIH PTE grants, and has discovered an anti-epileptogenic target and related biomarker that are incorporated into the PrevEp portfolio and strategy.

Team Member

Matthias Koepp

Vice President, Product Devel.

Co-founder

Matthias Koepp, M.D. has >30 years experience as a highly-cited and widely-published expert in epilepsy therapeutic product development. He is Professor of Neurology at the University College London (UCL) Queen Square Institute of Neurology, and Consultant Neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN), London. In addition, he heads the Epilepsy Clinical Trials Unit at the NHNN, and Clinical Lead at the Epilepsy Society – UCL MRI-Unit. He has co-directed a recent, ongoing trial of prevention of epilepsy after stroke, the first Phase 3 study of prevention of post-stroke epilepsy ever done, the clinical design of which was based on his co-discovery of predictors of post-stroke epilepsy.

Team Member

Eugen Trinka

Vice Prsident, Clinical Trials, Co-Founder

Eugen Trinka, M.D., M.Sc., F.R.C.P. has >30 years epilepsy research and clinical trial experience. He is Chairman of the Department of Neurology, Christian Doppler University Hospital at the Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria and Vice Director of the Christian Doppler University Hospital. Dr. Trinka is a world authority on epilepsy epidemiology and prognosis, drug development,epilepsy surgery and status epilepticus, as well as clinical neurophysiology and functional neuroimaging. Among his many awards are the Herbert Reisner Preis for clinical epileptology, and the Humes Visting Professorship Award of the Cornell Weill University New York. He was recognized in 2024 as one of the most often cited researchers in Medicine. Professor Trinka is Past President of Austrian Society of Neurology, Austrian Society for Epilepsy, Austrian Society for Clinical Neurophysiology and the Society of Epilepsy Surgery Centres in Germany, Austria. He was also Chair of ILAE-EUROPE in 2017-2021 and he is currently ILAE Vice President and Strategic Advisor of the ILAE Executive Committee