News

PharmaTher seeks fast-track status for ketamine

PharmaTher Holdings has applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asking that ketamine be given fast-track designation as a potential treatment for dyskinesia, or uncontrolled movements, that occur as a side effect of levodopa being used by people with Parkinson’s disease. The fast-track designation is designed…

AAN 2023: Poorly controlled disease’s long-term burden evaluated

Abbvie is funding a clinical trial called PROSPECT to assess how clinical outcomes and disease burden change over time for people with Parkinson’s disease whose symptoms are not adequately controlled with available treatments. Interim data from the trial, presented at this year’s American Academy of Neurology (AAN) annual…

AAN 2023: Skin test ably detects alpha-synuclein clumps in trial

An assay using skin biopsies, called the Syn-One Test, was able to detect the alpha-synuclein protein that characterizes Parkinson’s disease and like conditions in more than 90% of the patients enrolled in a clinical trial. “These results validate cutaneous [skin-based] alpha-synuclein as a reliable biomarker for Parkinson’s disease and…

Low-intensity ultrasound boosts therapeutic delivery to the brain

Noninvasive low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) temporarily opened the blood-brain barrier to allow molecules to enter the brains of Parkinson’s disease patients, a study reports. In nonhuman primates, LIFU safely enhanced the delivery of a gene therapy model using a harmless, modified virus directly to the striatum, a region affected…

AAN 2023: P2B001 controls symptoms with less sleepiness

The investigational combination therapy P2B001 was similar to Mirapex (pramipexole) at controlling symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in a clinical trial. But patients treated with P2B001 were less likely to experience sleepiness and fewer had orthostatic hypotension (a sudden drop in blood pressure on standing) as side effects. Lawrence Elmer,…

AAN 2023: IPX203 still safe, effective in extension study

IPX203, Amneal Pharmaceuticals‘ investigational extended-release carbidopa/levodopa (CD/LD) treatment for Parkinson’s disease, continued to exhibit a favorable safety and efficacy profile during the open-label extension part of the Phase 3 RISE-PD trial. “IPX203 remained as efficacious and safe as it was shown during the RISE-PD study, and the vast…