Here's Why Vanda Pharmaceuticals Jumped Higher Today
Shares of Vanda Pharmaceurticals (NASDAQ: VNDA) are up 8.7% at 2:35 p.m. EST after the drugmaker gained an expanded Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its sleep drug Hetlioz. The new approval covers patients with Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS), a rare neurodevelopmental disorder.
One of the hallmarks of SMS is that patients have a hard time sleeping during the night. It's a fairly rare disease -- Vanda estimates that about 15,000 Americans have SMS. Hetlioz works by inhibiting the melatonin receptor. Taking the drug before bed helps reset patients' circadian rhythms.
Hetlioz is also approved to treat non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder, a disease found in blind people who can't sense light, which disrupts their circadian rhythms.
Source Fool.com
