(Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday its experimental drug, seltorexant, met all main and secondary goals in a late-stage study evaluating it in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and insomnia symptoms.
The drug was given to adult and elderly patients as a supplemental treatment to antidepressants in the study.
J&J’s drug candidate showed improvement in depressive symptoms when tested on a scale used to measure the severity of depressive episodes in patients.
Seltorexant works by selectively targeting proteins known as orexin-2 receptors, which play a key role in sleep-wake rhythm of the body.
About 60% of MDD patients on standard-of-care oral antidepressants experience residual insomnia symptoms, the company said in a statement.
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija and Pratik Jain in Bengaluru; editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Shilpi Majumdar)
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