Living with Parkinson’ s
Dr. Dolhun Talks PD
Photo by Chad Batka
Thinking about New Therapies
Rachel Dolhun, MD, is a movement disorder specialist, board-certified neurologist and vice president of medical communications at MJFF.
Over the past 18 months, three new therapies for Parkinson’ s disease( PD) completed the long development journey and took their rightful place“ on pharmacy shelves,” where they can help people with PD.
In 2015, two novel levodopa formulations— Duopa and Rytary— gained U. S. Food and Drug Administration( FDA) approval. In early 2016, Nuplazid( pimavanserin) became the first drug approved to treat Parkinson’ s disease psychosis.
Today’ s Parkinson’ s development pipeline is bursting at the seams with potential new treatments, and several more drugs— for sudden“ off” periods( when symptoms unexpectedly return) and dyskinesia( uncontrolled involuntary movements)— are anticipated to cross the finish line to patients within the next one to two years. This is great news— speeding new drugs to treat more of Parkinson’ s disease is the 10
The Fox Focus mission of The Michael J. Fox Foundation. So we rejoice at the progress and hope represented by every approval, and the wider variety of options to help patients manage their disease.
We recognize, however, that the advent of new drugs also raises questions about whether and how to integrate them into a Parkinson’ s treatment regimen.