Looks like the MRK suvorexant program for insomnia has made solid progress.
Suvo was earlier known as MK4305 and is a dual orexin receptor antagonist, and has been shown to have effects on sleep latency and total sleep time with no hangover effects apparently observed in primary insomniacs. Importantly it has shown 12 month efficacy with no obvious reduction in effects. Different mechanism than the GABAergic drugs like ambien and lunesta, and in my view will not be a scheduled drug that will help for commercial uptake. Very good market opportunity with little near term competition since the Actelion/GSK drug almorexant has been terminated.
MRK also has a backup orexin antagonist (MK6096) that has completed polysomnography studies in the clinic. This is typical for MRK to have a backup "ready to go" if problems with the lead compound crops up. GSK has 649868 in a Ph2 insomnia study according to their pipeline update earlier this year.
I also like the MRK CETP inhibitor anecetrapib, and of course everyone is looking forward to the REVEAL study of 30K patients looking at cardiac events.
I was not yet able to listen to their webcast yet, but am interested to try to surmise the MRK bullishness on their internal major programs. My bet is on the 2 programs discussed above. MRK looks to me to be a longer term big pharma buy, but I do not hold any shares currently. I think investors will be surprised in their internal biologics efforts in a few years forward.
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