#AAN2018- Inbrija Reduces Parkinson’s Off Periods, Phase 3 Trial Shows

José Lopes, PhD avatar

by José Lopes, PhD |

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Inbrija reduces Parkinson’s symptoms when standard treatments wear off, and decreases the length of these off periods, a Phase 3 clinical trial shows.

The therapy’s developer, Acorda Therapeutics, will present the results at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting in Los Angeles, April 21-27. Parkinson’s News Today will be covering the conference.

Acorda’s presentation will be at 4:54 p.m. Pacific time on Tuesday, April 24. The title will be “Long-term Efficacy of Inhaled Levodopa in Parkinson’s Disease Subjects With Motor Fluctuations: a Phase 3 Open-Label Randomized Study.

Inbrija (CVT-301) is a self-administered, inhaled version of levodopa intended to reduce the time when standard levodopa treatment wears off — periods known as off times.

Acorda conducted the Phase 3 trial (NCT02352363) to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of an 84-mg dose of Inbrija over 12 months in 408 Parkinson’s patients with movement problems.

The Inbrija group consisted of 278 patients. The other 130 were assigned to standard care. Only 204 of the patients who received Inbrija were able to complete the trial.

At the beginning of the study, the Inbrija group had a mean age of 63.6 years, had had Parkinson’s for nine years, were averaging 3.6 off periods a day, and were experiencing total off times of 5.6 hours per day. Patients took an average of 2.3 doses of Inbrija a day.

One of the measures that researchers used to measure Inbrija’s effectiveness was improvements in patients’ UPDRS-III scores, which assess both movement and non-movement symptoms, 10, 20, 30, and 60 minutes after dosing. Another measure was the percentage of patients able to regain control of their symptoms within 60 minutes of treatment.

Still another measure was reductions in patients’ off times. And a fourth was better scores on a scale known as PGIC, which shows whether a patient believes a treatment is effective.

A key finding was improvements in Parkinson’s symptoms at all time points between week 4 and 52 on the UPDRS-III scale.

Another finding was that patients were able to regain control of their symptoms within 60 minutes.

In addition, patients were able to reduced their total daily off times by between 1.32 and 1.42 hours. And 75 percent of patients showed improvements in PGIC scores.

Overall, improvements in UPDRS-III scores, daily off times and PGIC scores “support the efficacy of up to 52 weeks of treatment with CVT-301 (Inbrija) 84 mg in the treatment of off period symptoms,” the researchers wrote.

The results prompted Acorda to seek European Union approval of Inbrija as a treatment for off periods in Parkinson’s.

In addition to data from this Phase 3 trial, Acorda’s application to the EU included results of the Phase 3 SPAN-PD trial (NCT02240030) in 351 participants and the Phase 3 CVT-301-004E trial (NCT02242487) in 325 participants.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted Acorda’s New Drug Application for Inbrija in February 2018. It is expected to decide whether to approve it by October 5.