Federal advisory panel on Wednesday endorsed Suvorexant (Merck product). FDA may approve by this fall.
Suvorexant
belongs to a new class to insomnia agents which block orexin. Orexin is a excitatory neurotransmitter. This would be the first in a new class and it works in a different manner than currently available drugs for insomnia.
Before this we had agents that: 1) increased GABA effect (benzos and nonbenzos),2) agents that blocked the histamine (Silenor), and 3) agents that worked on the SCN nucleus (Ramelteon).
-Dr Zorn
Thank you Dr Zorn/dkm