What is the therapeutic effect of lemborexant?

Lemborexant is a new type of oral hypnotic, mainly used to treat insomnia characterized by difficulty falling asleep or maintaining sleep. Its mechanism of action is different from traditional benzodiazepines. It is an orexin receptor antagonist. It blocks the binding of orexin A and B, the neuropeptides in the brain that regulate wakefulness, to its receptors OX1R and OX2R, thereby reducing wakefulness drive and promoting natural sleep. Leborexenhas a stronger affinity for OX2R and is considered to have a more significant effect on maintaining sleep. Therefore, in clinical applications, it is especially suitable for patients who wake up frequently at night and have difficulty maintaining continuous sleep.

The efficacy of leborexan has been confirmed in two pivotal international multi-center Phase III clinical trials, namely SUNRISE 1 and SUNRISE 2. SUNRISE 1 mainly evaluates the effect of short-term use. Among a total of about 1,000 subjects, the two dose groups of leborexan 5mg and 10mg have significant advantages over the placebo group in the primary endpoint of sleep onset latency (LPS). At the same time, it also showed statistically significant improvements in overall sleep efficiency (SE) and sleep time after nocturnal awakening (WASO). Another SUNRISE 2 study focused on the long-term treatment effect, lasting up to 6 months. The results showed that Dayvigo was better than the placebo group in terms of subjective sleep onset latency (sSOL), subjective total sleep efficiency (sSE) or subjective nighttime sleep time after awakening (sWASO), and the efficacy was stable and sustainable.

In addition, studies have also found that leborexan is not only effective in patients with primary insomnia, but also effective in patients with insomnia with comorbidities such as depression and anxiety. This discovery expands the clinical scope of the drug. In general, leborexan has become an important choice in the field of international insomnia treatment in recent years due to its unique mechanism, good sleep improvement ability and relatively safe side effect spectrum, especially suitable for adult patients who have long been troubled by sleep quality.

Reference materials:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559070/