Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

An advisory panel to Japan's health, labor and welfare minister on Wednesday approved Orzeyful, a medication for narcolepsy, for coverage by public health insurance. The drug is the first in Japan to target the underlying cause of narcolepsy, and will be covered from Wednesday.

Orzeyful, whose generic name is oveporexton, was developed by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. to treat narcolepsy, a sleep disorder characterized by sudden, intense daytime sleepiness. Specifically, it treats type 1 narcolepsy, a form of the disorder caused by a deficiency of orexin, a neurotransmitter that regulates sleep and wakefulness. This deficiency is itself caused by a reduction in the number of neurons that produce orexin.

Orexin stabilizes wakefulness by binding to receptors in the nervous system. Orzeyful binds to these receptors in place of orexin to promote wakefulness. In clinical trials conducted with patients in Japan and overseas, 85% of patients who took Orzeyful experienced a reduction in sleepiness to levels comparable to healthy individuals.

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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.

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