Sage’s epilepsy drug fails to do better than placebo in key clinical trial

Sage Therapeutics’ closely watched drug, brexanolone, did not do much better than a placebo in helping patients with a severe type of epilepsy, data from a phase 3 clinical trial show.

Sage, which is based in Cambridge, Mass. expected brexanolone to lead to its first-ever drug approval. Instead, its shares dropped 25 percent to $66 in pre-market trading.

The drug was intended to treat a grave form of uncontrollable epilepsy called super-refractory status epilepticus, or SRSE. A continuous infusion of brexanolone over six days weaned 44 percent of SRSE patients from medically induced comas without seizures returning for 24 hours. The comparable response rate