Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced it has received a positive response from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the efficacy and safety data resulting from the company’s pivotal Phase 3 Marigold Study on the use of oral ganaxolone in children and young adults with CDKL5 deficiency disorder (CDD) appear sufficient to support the filing of a New Drug Application (NDA). Adequacy of these data to support an approval of ganaxolone for the proposed indication will be a matter of future FDA review. CDD is a rare, genetic epilepsy with refractory seizures. Marinus provided the data to the FDA in a briefing document meant to support a Type C meeting, and the FDA provided written preliminary comments in response. Based on this feedback, Marinus is targeting a pre-NDA meeting by the end of First Quarter to support submission. In September, Marinus reported positive topline data from the Phase 3 Marigold Study, the first double-blind placebo-controlled trial to provide evidence of efficacy in CDD and the first Phase 3 trial to examine three times a day dosing of ganaxolone in pediatric patients. In the Phase 3 Marigold trial, patients treated with ganaxolone showed a significant 32.2% median reduction in 28-day major motor seizure frequency, compared to a 4.0% reduction for those receiving the placebo, achieving the trial’s primary endpoint (p=0.002). In this trial, ganaxolone was generally well tolerated with a safety profile consistent with previous clinical trials, with the most frequent adverse event being somnolence.