Idorsia also secures authorization for sleeping aid in Canada

Health Canada has authorized the drug QUVIVIQ for the treatment of insomnia in adults. It is manufactured by Idorsia Pharmaceuticals, which is based in Allschwil in the canton of Basel-Landschaft on the outskirts of the city of Basel. The subsidiary Idorsia Canada, which is headed up by General Manager Ron Morcos, is planning to make the sleeping aid available in Canada by the end of the year.

Idorsia writes in a press release that more than 2.2 million working-age Canadians are affected by sleep disorders. As a result of chronic insomnia, the country suffers economic losses of 19.6 billion US dollars each year.

In contrast to other sleeping aids, QUVIVIQ does not sedate brain activity as a whole, but rather only blocks the Orexin receptors, which promote a state of wakefulness. In this way, patients can be induced to sleep without altering the respective proportions of different sleep phases.

“I’m very pleased with the positive decision from Health Canada”, comments Jean-Paul Clozel, CEO of Idorsia, in the press release. He is “confident that Ron and his expert team in Canada will be successful in transforming the Canadian sleep market”.

QUVIVIQ was launched on the US market in May 2022, while EU authorization was granted in April 2022. According to the press release, launch preparations are underway in the key European markets. In Italy and Germany, the sleeping aid has been available since November 2022. Swissmedic, the Swiss agency for therapeutic products, granted marketing authorization in December 2022, with Idorsia aiming to make QUVIVIQ available to patients in Switzerland in June 2023. ce/mm