“Shift work refers to work that takes place outside of traditional 9-to-5 daytime hours. If you work nights or rotating shifts, you are a shift worker. Many people who work shifts are at risk for developing shift work disorder (SWD) and may experience excessive sleepiness (ES) on the job.” So says the website designed to market the drug known as Nuvigil, sold by Cephalon, a subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2007 to treat narcolepsy and obstructive sleep apnea and the excessive sleepiness that may come with working a night shift, sales of Nuvigil grew by about 20 percent between 2013 and 2014, bringing in $189 million in the first six months of this year. The company’s online advertising suggests that that “1 in 4” of the approximately 15 million Americans who work outside 9 to 5 hours “may have SWD” and that shift workers may include factory workers, security guards, retail workers, fire fighters, doctors, nurses and other hospital workers, hotel and restaurant employees along with accountants, stockbrokers and “other people with corporate jobs.” “The main symptoms of SWD are excessive sleepiness (ES) during a work shift and trouble sleeping (insomnia) during sleeping hours,” says the Nuvigil marketing copy. Curious about both the drug and the number of US workers the company might have in its sights as a potential market, I went to see... |
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