Shares of Alkermes, the Dublin-based developer of brain drugs, have surged nearly 50% in the last month, in good part because of positive clinical data for the company’s most talked about research program.
The data, released in mid-June, showed Alkermes’ experimental pill “alixorexton” was significantly better than a placebo at keeping patients with the more common, “Type 2” form of narcolepsy awake and alert. Patients also tolerated the drug well, as there were no serious “treatment-emergent adverse events.” Alkermes has since initiated a global, Phase 3 program that will evaluate its pill in patients with Type 2 as well as Type 1 narcolepsy, which is hallmarked by a specific kind of loss in muscle control.
On Wall Street, analysts see a multibillion-dollar opportunity in a new class of drugs that includes alixorexton as well as medicines from Takeda Pharmaceutical, Eli Lilly and Eisai. These therapies stimulate certain proteins, “orexins,” that are found through the circuits of the brain and regulate key functions like stress, energy, mood, learning and attention. As such, developers expect that orexin-targeting agents will be valuable treatments not only for narcolepsy, but for conditions like ADHD as well as other sleep disorders like idiopathic hypersomnia.
