AI Summary
5 min readIn the late 1990s, a Stanford researcher named Dr. Emmanuel Mignot was studying why certain Dobermans and Labradors had a very high propensity to inherit narcolepsy. Through various experiments, he narrowed the cause down to a particular genetic mutation that made the dogs unable to respond to a molecule in their brains called orexin. That discovery set drugmakers on a path that, a quarter-century later, has produced a new class of medicines now being compared—cautiously—to the blockbuster GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic.
The master switch for wakefulness
Orexin is a neuropeptide found in the brain whose main job is to regulate the boundary between sleep and wakefulness. It acts as the body's master switch for that transition. A new class of drugs called orexin agonists—medicines that mimic the action of the orexin molecule—are now approaching the market. In early March, the FDA approved a drug called ovoperexton, made by the Japanese pharmaceutical firm Takeda, to treat narcolepsy, a condition where the boundary between sleep and wakefulness is blurred. People with narcolepsy may suddenly fall asleep without warning; a more severe strain is accompanied by cataplexy, where muscles essentially freeze. The drug helps patients control that boundary much better.
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of Economist Podcasts
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (02:12) **Orexin Agonists: The Next Ozempic?** - An introduction to orexin, a neuropeptide that regulates wakefulness, and the new class of drugs (orexin agonists) being developed around it, which some analysts believe could rival GLP-1 drugs in market impact.
- 2 (04:45) **Origin Story: The Discovery of Orexin** - How researchers converged on orexin in the late 1990s, including a key study on narcoleptic dogs at Stanford that linked the condition to a genetic mutation affecting the orexin molecule.
- 3 (05:48) **Beyond Narcolepsy: The Potential Broader Applications** - While the first approved use is for the rare condition narcolepsy, animal trials suggest orexin agonists could regulate reward-seeking behavior, motivation, and potentially treat depression, ADHD, and addictions.
- 4 (07:44) **The "Everything Drug" Parallel to GLP-1s** - The comparison to Ozempic is drawn because GLP-1 drugs started as a diabetes treatment and expanded to obesity, heart conditions, and kidney diseases, suggesting a similar trajectory might be possible for orexin agonists.
- 5 (10:57) **Japan's Startup Problem: A Shortage of Capital** - The first of three main problems explaining why Japan, despite its post-war industrial giants (Sony, Honda), produces only 6 of the world's 1,400 unicorns: a severe shortage of risk-tolerant venture capital.
- 6 (13:31) **Japan's Startup Problem: Low Cultural Standing** - The second problem is that entrepreneurship has low social prestige; only 24% of Japanese consider it a desirable occupation, compared to a global average of 67%.
- 7 (14:17) **Japan's Startup Problem: Rushing to IPO** - The third problem is that startups go public too quickly because VCs pressure them to cash out and there is little M&A activity, resulting in IPOs that are more like intermediate fundraising rounds than major market debuts.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Orexins are peptides involved in the body’s sleep-wake system—and are big pharma’s next big thing. Like multi-purpose GLPs, they may have far more uses than just regulating shuteye. We ask why Japan’s post-war innovation boom petered out, and what must be done to breed more unicorns. And why procrastination seems to be on the rise, and how to beat it.
Guests and host:
- Shailesh Chitnis, global business correspondent
- Ethan Wu, Asia business and finance editor
- Benjamin Sutherland, science writer
- Rosie Blau, co-host of “The Intelligence”
- Jason Palmer, co-host of “The Intelligence”
Topics covered:
- orexins, peptides, sleep disorders, pharmaceuticals
- Japan, innovation, startups
- procrastination
Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from this podcast
Economist Podcasts →