Drug for Dravet syndrome PBS-listed

Stiripentol has been listed on the PBS for the treatment of Dravet syndrome presenting in the first year of life.
The therapy (Diacomit, Chiesi Australia) was TGA-approved in 2019 after the results of two randomised controlled trials demonstrated that the drug, in combination with valproate and clobazam, performed significantly better than placebo.
In the trials a response was defined as a patient whose number of generalised clonic or tonic-clonic seizures halved or better during therapy.
The drug was PBS-listed as Authority (Streamlined) on 1 August as an adjunctive therapy to valproate plus a benzodiazepine.