As of 2018, XYREM has been prescribed for more than 64,000 narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia patients. When Jazz Pharmaceuticals launched the only low-sodium oxybate on the market in July 2020, doctors quickly began bridging their patients from Xyrem to Xywav. Due to the risks of Xyrem's high sodium content on cardiovascular health, many patients have no choice but to take the low-sodium oxybate, Xywav. 

Xywav is currently the only low-sodium oxybate on the market, and is expected to stay that way for many years to come. Currently, Xywav is sweetened with sucralose, an artificial sweetener and sugar substitute. 

Sucralose alters glucose and insulin levels, causes a variety of digestive problems, alters gut health and the microbiome by lowering the content of good bacteria in the gut by more than half, and may play a role in the development of certain cancers.

Many Xywav patients deal with the negative side effects of sucralose in their medication, such as migraine headaches, nausea, inflammation, diarrhea, metabolic dysfunction, etc, due to not having a low-sodium oxybate alternative. 

In addition to the gastrointestinal side effects sucralose can cause, new research indicates a byproduct of consuming sucralose can be genotoxic.

Sucralose-6-acetate is a byproduct of sucralose that is produced in the gut after sucralose is ingested. So it doesn’t really matter if Splenda says their product doesn’t contain sucralose-6-acetate if this is a byproduct of consuming sucralose. But even then, the original study showed otherwise-
“Our new work establishes that sucralose-6-acetate is genotoxic,” says Susan Schiffman, corresponding author of the study and an adjunct professor in the joint department of biomedical engineering at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “We also found that trace amounts of sucralose-6-acetate can be found in off-the-shelf sucralose, even before it is consumed and metabolized.

“To put this in context, the European Food Safety Authority has a threshold of toxicological concern for all genotoxic substances of 0.15 micrograms per person per day,” Schiffman says. “Our work suggests that the trace amounts of sucralose-6-acetate in a single, daily sucralose-sweetened drink exceed that threshold. And that’s not even accounting for the amount of sucralose-6-acetate produced as metabolites after people consume sucralose.”

We deserve to have a low sodium oxybate that is free from harmful artificial sweeteners. Please sign this petition to request Jazz Pharmaceuticals adjust their Xywav formulation to remove sucralose, or create an alternative formulation for those who are sensitive to artificial sweeteners.