Idorsia advances global rollout of QUVIVIQ with Jamjoom Pharma partnership in Saudi Arabia and the Levant

Idorsia Partners with Jamjoom Pharma for QUVIVIQ Rollout

Idorsia Ltd has entered into an exclusive agreement with Jamjoom Pharmaceuticals Factory Co. for the distribution and commercialization of QUVIVIQ (daridorexant), Idorsia’s treatment for adults with insomnia, in Saudi Arabia and the Levant region. This partnership is a key step in Idorsia's international growth strategy, leveraging Jamjoom Pharma's strong market presence and regulatory expertise to expand patient access. Under the terms, Idorsia will receive an upfront payment and royalties on net sales, while Jamjoom Pharma will be responsible for marketing authorization, regulatory, distribution, promotion, and commercialization activities in the agreed territories.

• Idorsia has forged an exclusive agreement with Jamjoom Pharma for the distribution and commercialization of QUVIVIQ (daridorexant) in Saudi Arabia and the Levant region. This strategic partnership is instrumental in executing Idorsia's international growth strategy, aiming to maximize patient access to its innovative insomnia treatment by leveraging Jamjoom Pharma's robust market presence, deep regulatory expertise, and established commercial infrastructure.
• The financial and operational terms of the agreement stipulate that Idorsia will receive an upfront payment and is eligible for additional payments, including royalties on net sales from QUVIVIQ. Jamjoom Pharma will assume responsibility for obtaining marketing authorization for QUVIVIQ in Saudi Arabia, as well as managing all regulatory, distribution, promotion, and commercialization activities across Saudi Arabia and the Levant region, with Idorsia supplying the finished drug product.
• QUVIVIQ (daridorexant) is highlighted as a distinct insomnia treatment, functioning as a dual orexin receptor antagonist that selectively targets the orexin system to regulate overactive wake signaling. Clinical trials, published in The Lancet Neurology, demonstrated that daridorexant significantly improved sleep onset, sleep maintenance, and self-reported total sleep time at 25mg and 50mg doses, with the 50mg dose also showing significant improvement in daytime functioning compared to placebo.

The Persistent Unmet Needs Driving QUVIVIQ's Global Expansion

Insomnia care continues to reveal significant gaps across diverse patient populations, with unmet needs spanning accessibility, safety, and treatment personalization. Despite CBT-I's status as the gold-standard first-line treatment, structural and demographic barriers persist, driving demand for novel pharmacological and digital solutions like dual orexin receptor antagonists (DORAs).

• Older adults (≥50-65 years) remain the largest underserved population, with sleep difficulties affecting 20-40% of this group and driving chronic, often off-label pharmacotherapy that deviates from clinical guidelines. Polypharmacy further complicates management, increasing risks of drug interactions, falls, and cognitive decline, while long-term benzodiazepine receptor agonist (BZRA) use—flagged as low-value care—remains inadequately deprescribed in routine practice.

• Cognitively vulnerable populations, including persons with dementia (ADRD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), face compounding challenges: sleep disturbances accelerate cognitive decline and institutionalization, yet neurocognitive limitations hinder engagement with CBT-I, and tailored non-pharmacologic alternatives (e.g., music interventions, rTMS combined with CBT-I) remain underdeveloped or insufficiently tested.

• Women—particularly female cancer survivors—represent a growing, underserved segment, with insomnia prevalence reaching 62% in breast cancer survivors (three times the general population rate). Iatrogenic menopause from oncological treatments, hormonal regulation of sleep-wake pathways, and greater cognitive-emotional arousal contribute to elevated risk, compounded by systemic gender bias where women are overprescribed sedatives while men remain underdiagnosed.

• Racial and socioeconomic disparities restrict equitable access to care, with non-White populations reporting lower awareness of insomnia treatments and shift work/job insecurity further limiting diagnosis and treatment uptake—often resulting in medication overuse in place of behavioral interventions.

• Public awareness gaps favor pharmacological over behavioral treatments: a nationally representative U.S. survey (n=3,080) found substantially higher familiarity with medications than CBT-I, a pattern reinforced by media and pharmaceutical industry promotion, alongside a persistent shortage of trained CBT-I providers and limited eHealth/digital CBT-I availability in many countries.

• Emerging innovations aim to close these gaps, including tiered digital CBT-I platforms, AI-driven personalization, tryptophan-rich nutritional interventions for cancer patients, and DORAs (daridorexant, lemborexant, suvorexant)—which demonstrate favorable efficacy on WASO, sleep latency, and total sleep time, with daridorexant showing a particularly favorable safety profile and no significant fall-risk signal across the class.

QUVIVIQ: A Differentiated Approach to Insomnia Treatment Challenges

Current pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches to insomnia face significant hurdles that challenge effective patient management. Despite a range of available therapies, their utility is often constrained by concerns regarding safety and tolerability, inconsistent efficacy, limited accessibility, and notable gaps in the supporting clinical evidence, particularly for special populations.

• Adverse Effects and Safety Concerns: Many established pharmacological agents, including benzodiazepines and non-benzodiazepine hypnotics (Z-drugs), carry risks of dependence, withdrawal symptoms, and rebound insomnia. There is growing concern over both short- and long-term adverse effects, such as residual next-day sedation, cognitive impairment, and complex sleep behaviors, which are particularly problematic in patients over 65 years old.

• Limited Evidence and Efficacy Gaps: The evidence base supporting the efficacy of many commonly used treatments is limited. This includes frequently prescribed off-label agents like antidepressants and antipsychotics, as well as complementary medicines such as melatonin, which suffers from inconsistent product quality and a need for more robust clinical trials. Even newer agents like the dual orexin receptor antagonist suvorexant lack direct head-to-head comparative data against other approved hypnotics.

• Challenges in Special Populations: Treating pediatric insomnia is difficult, as the condition is often underdiagnosed and undertreated in primary care. Pharmacotherapy is frequently employed off-label, with treatment decisions based on data extrapolated from adult studies due to a scarcity of dedicated research in children and adolescents.

• Restricted Access to First-Line Non-Pharmacological Therapy: Although cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is recommended as the first-line intervention by multiple specialty societies, its practical application is severely restricted. A widespread lack of trained behavioral providers limits patient access to in-person CBT-I, and while digital versions (dCBT-I) are emerging, they currently lack sufficient randomized controlled trial data in pediatric populations.

Positioning Daridorexant in the Orexin Receptor Antagonist Landscape

Daridorexant joins two other approved dual orexin receptor antagonists (DORAs), lemborexant and suvorexant, in the market for insomnia. This class of drugs inhibits wakefulness by blocking the orexin neuropeptide signaling system, a distinct mechanism from traditional sedative-hypnotics. Several other DORAs have also been evaluated in clinical trials, though some have since been discontinued.