Seeking Natural Ingredients that Modify the Orexin Pathway to Improve Sleep

A multinational company with over 170 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, dedicated to the commercialisation of self-consumption products (non‑prescription drugs and natural products including food supplements) for the health and well-being of people, they are seeking natural ingredients in food grade in order to improve sleep.

Melatonin is the most well-known ingredient used in this health category as a sleep inducer with high knowledge of its effectiveness, however there is controversy surrounding the allowed dosage in Europe. For this reason, our client would like to find a substitute of this ingredient, or an ingredient with a similar effectiveness, to maintain or improve sleep induction and decrease night awakening.

Approaches of Interest:

• Natural ingredients that improve sleep, including herbal extracts, amino acids, peptides etc
• All sources of natural compounds are of interest, including plant-based extracts, bacteria culture/probiotic, animal & vegan proteins, chemically synthesised ingredients etc
• Ingredients that target the orexin pathway, either directly or indirectly, are of highest interest. Our client will also consider natural ingredients that induce sleep or reduce the frequency of night awakenings via other pathways
• Must be an oral ingredient (not a drug) in food grade that may have activity to improve insomnia at a lower dosage (<500mg)
• Ingredients that boost the effectiveness of melatonin at a lower dosage will also be considered as a secondary point

Out of Scope:

• Approaches relating to prescription medication to improve sleep
• Most common ingredients like: valerian root, passionflower, lemon balm, lime blossom etc
• Ingredients that modify the action of melatonin or improve bioavailability

Developmental Stages of Interest:

• Opportunities at late preclinical research phase to clinical trial phases are within scope, provided there is proof‑of‑concept validation data. Research that can be rapidly scaled to market is of particular interest

Submission Information:

Submissions should contain 200-300 word briefs along with the following optional submission form, highlighting any relevant data and supplementary information e.g., relevant publications and patents. In submitting to this campaign, you confirm that your submission contains only non-confidential information. 

Opportunity for Collaboration:

Our client is open to a range of collaboration opportunities, with the most appropriate outcome being decided on a case-by-case basis. Example outcomes include licensing (in particular for raw materials), investment for potential related clinical studies or publications, and future collaborations for other projects in food supplements or cosmetic areas. Please note that our client is not looking to establish joint EU funding projects for this call.