"While jet lag may not be health crisis exactly it sure can be a pain. So who wouldnt want a pill to fight the doldrums caused by skipping too many time zones too fast Well the Food and Drug Administration. The regulators just gave a second thumbs down http to drugmaker Cephalons application to sell Nuvigil http_is_nuvigil as a remedy for jet lag. The medicine is already approved to fight narcolepsy and sleepiness related to shift work. But the regulators werent buying the evidence put forward by the company to prove the medicines benefits in treating travelers excessive sleepiness outweighed its risks. In March the FDA turned down Cephalons jetlag application and questioned how good the data supporting it really were httpinvestors.cephalon.comphoenix.zhtmlcpirolnewsArticleIDhighlight. Cephalon soldiered on giving FDA more data. But today the company said its response fell short. In a statement Dr. Lesley Russell Cephalons chief medical officer said The company believes that further communications with the FDA will not result in an approval of this application. As a result the company is no longer pursuing this indication. The most common side effects for Nuvigil include diarrhea headache insomnia and nausea according to Cephalon. The medicine has also been linked to rare but lifethreatening skin rashes httpnuvigilrems.compdfDearHCPLetter.pdf including StevensJohnson syndrome and carries a prominent warning about that risk. Finally it should be said that the Drug Enforcement Administration has made Nuvigil a federally controlled substance http_nuvigilfaq.php because it has the potential for abuse and dependence."