Actelion announces results of almorexant sleep trials

Actelion has announced pre-clinical and clinical trial data from studies of almorexant in patients suffering from insomnia.

The results, which will be presented to the World Sleep Congress in Australia, show that the compound improves sleep efficiency – measured as the time spent asleep while confined to bed for eight hours at night – dependent on dose.

Furthermore, almorexant was also shown to boost key PSG-assessed sleep parameters, including decreases in latency to persistent sleep and wake after sleep onset.

Almorexant is an orally-administered orexin receptor antagonist being tested by Actelion at 100 mg, 200 mg and 400 mg as potential new therapy for insomnia by inducing a transient and reversible orexin receptor blockade.

Jasper Dingemanse, head of clinical pharmacology at Actelion, said: “These data indicate that almorexant assists patients in falling and staying asleep in a non-sedative fashion, while at the same time not exhibiting any negative effects on next-day performance, as is commonly observed with traditional sleep medications targeting benzodiazepine receptors.”

He added that the findings confirm the key role played by the orexin system in controlling the cycle of waking and sleeping in individuals.

In February 2007, Actelion reported that its orexin OX1/OX2 receptor antagonist, then dubbed ACT-078573, met its primary endpoint in a proof-of-concept study in insomnia patients.