Alkermes and Takeda Pharmaceuticals said Monday that their respective drug candidates for a form of narcolepsy substantially helped patients stay awake, fueling the race to develop a new class of therapies that could transform sleep medicine .

In a six-week Phase 2 trial, the highest dose of Alkermes’ treatment, alixorexton, helped increase the average amount of time patients stayed awake on a test by 26 minutes more than the changes experienced by the placebo group. This translated to them being able to stay awake for 28 minutes by the end of the trial, exceeding the threshold of 20 minutes that’s considered to represent normal wakefulness.

Meanwhile, in two 12-week Phase 3 trials, patients on the highest dose of Takeda’s drug, oveporexton, experienced increases of 20 minutes and 17 m

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