A new drug that is being developed is being hailed as "Ozempic for the brain" and could help up to 15 brain conditions.

While Ozempic is still the drug that has all the buzz, there's a new one on the horizon that could be about to take its crown.

Professor Luke O'Neill, Professor of Biochemistry in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College in Dublin appeared on The Pat Kenny Show to discuss this new drug that is being hailed as "Ozempic for the brain".

So far, oveporexton has been approved for narcolepsy, which is a condition that sees people suddenly fall asleep, but with this drug, it stimulates the brain and hence, prevents people from abruptly falling asleep.

O'Neill explained: "It's seen as a bit of a breakthrough, really, for that disease. So these orexins, they keep you awake if you have them. And if you don't have them, you fall asleep.

"[Researchers] realised there was a deficiency in this natural thing called orexin. And of course, drug companies went, 'oh, if we replace it now, we could probably keep people awake'.

"A big clinical trial was done, 90 patients with the disease and lo and behold, it stopped the narcolepsy. And then the FDA approved it based on that. But of course, it's also about things like alertness and brain function.

"It's very important to remember this is a natural hormone, a natural neurotransmitter. So therefore that made it more possible then to be a therapeutic. It's a natural part of our body."

The discovery was initially made when studying narcolepsy in Doberman dogs, and after discovering their deficiency in orexins, researchers decided to look at humans to see if they had the same.

While the drug's primary use at the moment is for narcolepsy, like how Ozempic is now being used for a variety of reasons, there is the potential for oveporexton to be used for different brain disorders too.

O'Neill added that an Irish company, Alkermes Pharma, is making orexins with a focus on ADHD as new evidence is showing they can also affect attention spans. However, this evidence hasn't been seen in humans yet.

"I've looked at the fact that this morning there's about 15 brain conditions now they're claiming this could be useful," O'Neill continued, "It's early days, of course, a lot of it's experimental. We don't want to get too ahead of ourselves here.

"But the fact that the first disease has been approved in the case of narcolepsy kind of opens up the vista for any different diseases being treatable."

Main image: Man asleep at laptiop Picture by: mauritius images GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo