This invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions and methods of making them. More specifically the invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions containing licarbazepine acetate, especially eslicarbazepine acetate.
Eslicarbazepine acetate is a voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC) blocker suitable for use as an anticonvulsant for example in treating epilepsy, affective disorders and neuropathic pain.

This molecule is structurally related to carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine, but has been specifically designed to reduce the production of toxic metabolites (such as epoxides) and to avoid enantiomeric impurity, and the unnecessary production of enantiomers or diastereoisomers of metabolites and conjugates, without losing pharmacological activity. It shares with carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine the dibenzazepine nucleus bearing the 5-carboxamide substitute but is differs at the 10,11-position. This molecular variation results in differences in metabolism, preventing the formation of toxic epoxide metabolites, such as carbamazepine-10,11 epoxide.