New pharmacologic agents for obstructive sleep apnoea: what do we know and what can we expect?

This review provides a condensed description of pharmacological remedies explored in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) as well as projections of what we might expect in terms of clinical performance of these drugs.

Conventional drug therapies explored in OSA have generally produced disappointing results and there is a shortage of pharmacological treatment alternatives in this disorder. Recent insights into pathophysiological mechanisms potentially involved in OSA suggest that the condition may be divided into distinct subgroups based on clusters or defined by means of unique functional endotypic criteria. In fact, positive outcomes in clinical trials have now resulted in several drug candidates that show a convincing reduction of sleep disordered breathing in both short and intermediate term. Such drugs may be particularly useful in certain variants of OSA but not in others. These insights have also raised the ambition to create personalized therapies in OSA. Another recent development is the insight that OSA-linked conditions such as obesity, daytime somnolence and various forms of cardiovascular/metabolic disease may provide drug-based targets. For instance, pharmacological obesity therapy may provide not only positive metabolic effects but may also be a way to eliminate the anatomic component in obese OSA patients.

Recent insights into the pathophysiology of OSA have opened possibilities to develop personalized therapy. Drugs addressing fundamental aspects of the sleep and breathing disorder provide a particularly promising avenue for development of novel forms of treatment in OSA.