Jazz spends $125m for rights to narcolepsy candidate

Jazz Pharmaceuticals has acquired rights from Aerial Biopharma to a narcolepsy treatment entering phase 3 development, under a licensing deal involving an up-front payment of 125 million US dollars.

"The ADX-N05 Phase 2b results ... demonstrated a robust effect on excessive daytime sleepiness in patients with narcolepsy.

"Given ADX-N05's demonstrated wake-promoting properties in pre-clinical and clinical studies, including the phase 2b results, we believe ADX-N05 could also potentially benefit patients whose excessive daytime sleepiness stems from other causes, such as obstructive sleep apnea."

Jeffrey Tobias, chief medical officer and executive vice-president of R&D, Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

Aerial first announced it was seeking a "strategic asset sale to accelerate the development of N05" when it published results of a phase 2b trial in October 2013.