Avadel Pharmaceuticals plc, a company focused on developing FT218, an investigational, once-nightly formulation of sodium oxybate, announced that the first patient has been dosed at a Florida Research Institute initiating an open-label extension (OLE)/switch study of FT218 as a potential treatment for excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy in patients with narcolepsy.
“Narcolepsy is a rare neurological sleep disorder with limited treatment options. We were encouraged by the positive Phase 3 data from the REST-ON study that evaluated FT218 as a potential treatment for excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy in patients with narcolepsy, so we are enrolling our patients in the open-label extension/switch study. We are pleased to be the first site participating in the study advancing clinical research on narcolepsy to potentially provide our patients more treatment options,” says sleep specialist Akinyemi Ajayi, MD, principal investigator, in a release.
Jordan Dubow, MD, chief medical officer of Avadel, says in a release, “The initiation of the OLE/switch study of FT218 underscores the need for more treatment options for people living with narcolepsy. This is an important milestone for FT218, as we start to generate dosing and preference data for narcolepsy patients switching from twice-nightly sodium oxybate to once-nightly FT218. If approved, FT218 could potentially address the key symptoms of narcolepsy, excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy, in one nightly dose.”
The OLE/switch study will examine the long-term safety and maintenance of efficacy of FT218 in patients with narcolepsy who participated in the REST-ON study, as well as dosing and preference data for patients switching from twice-nightly sodium oxybate to once-nightly FT218 regardless if they participated in REST-ON or not. The study will enroll about 250 patients at most of the North American clinical trial sites that participated in the REST-ON study.
