In its second deal of 2019, Neurocrine Biosciences has entered into a license and collaboration agreement with Xenon Pharmaceuticals to discover, develop and commercialise sodium channel inhibitors for the treatment of epilepsy. With the deal, Neurocrine gains access to Xenon’s XEN901, which is a clinical-stage selective Nav1.6 sodium channel inhibitor in development for the treatment of SCN8A developmental and epileptic encephalopathy, as well as other preclinical compounds. The deal comes almost a year after Neurocrine signed a similar agreement with Voyager Therapeuticsto develop and commercialise its gene therapy programmes.