8 Fox Focus | Research
Progress on the Path to Better Parkinson’ s Treatments
By Jen Fisher Wilson
WITH NEW OPTIONS for treating Parkinson’ s motor symptoms available and a pipeline full of potential treatments to slow or stop the disease and its disruptive effects, the outlook for treating Parkinson’ s continues to improve.
“ Newly available treatments represent major steps forward for easing symptoms,” said Rachel Dolhun, MD, DipABLM, principal medical advisor at The Michael J. Fox Foundation( MJFF).“ Meanwhile, improvements in drug development and clinical trials continue to shed light on the disease and ways to stop it, giving us good reason to feel hopeful about nextgeneration treatments.”
New Therapies Reduce Off Time
Since summer 2024, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration( FDA) has approved three dopamine-enhancing drugs for Parkinson’ s: Vyalev( levodopa / carbidopa) from AbbVie and Onapgo( apomorphine hydrochloride) from Supernus Pharmaceuticals are the first continuous under-the-skin infusion-based therapies for Parkinson’ s disease( PD). A third drug, Crexont( carbidopa / levodopa extended release) from Amneal Pharmaceuticals is a long-acting oral carbidopa / levodopa formulation. All three drugs increase the amount of daily“ on” time, when medication is working and symptoms are less noticeable.
The FDA also approved the first advance in a new wave of deep brain stimulation.( For more on DBS, turn to page 16.)
These approvals bring the total number of new Parkinson’ s disease therapies over the past decade to 21.
Key Trials Inform Development of Next-Generation Therapies
As the field celebrates new options for treating PD symptoms, it also looks to a future where precision therapies may be able to target the biology underlying the disease. Work toward that future is well underway: At least 75 drugs are in clinical testing for their potential to slow or stop— or perhaps one day prevent— PD progression.
Drugs Targeting Alpha-Synuclein Closely watched trials of drugs targeting alpha-synuclein— a protein that forms toxic clumps in the brains of people with PD— have reported mixed results. The Phase II UCB-Novartis ORCHESTRA trial studying minzasolmin did not show any effect on motor or nonmotor assessments of PD symptoms. Meanwhile, two Roche trials showed that some study participants treated with the monoclonal antibody prasinezumab experienced a slower progression of symptoms, and the company is expected to announce plans for further development by the end of June.
“ Drug development is incremental, and these early steps are essential to building knowledge and important to moving the field forward,”