Merck Wants to Put an End to Counting Sheep

摘要

A sleeping pill that offers the snooze-inducing benefits of Ambien and Lunesta while avoiding next-day grogginess and disorientation has eluded drug heavyweights including GlaxoSmithKline and Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical. Merck thinks it may have found a solution.rnThe drugmaker is in final testing of an insomnia product, named suvorex-ant, that works differently from the market leaders. Rather than boostingrnthe brain's complex sleep system, su-vorexant uses a more precise approach to block a tiny group of receptors that keep the body alert.rnIf approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the pill could generate $900 million annually for Merck, according to Barclays analyst Tony Butler. "It's not whether you put the patient to sleep, it's how you feel the next day," says Rafael Pelayo, a professor at the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine.