Parkinson’s infusion treatment demonstrates advantage over oral delivery

A Phase III trial has shown that compared to oral drug delivery, administering levodopa through an infusion pump led to nearly two hours of day (1.72) of additional time in which the medicine reduced symptoms in Parkinson’s patients.

There were 381 Parkinson’s patients enrolled in the trial. Levodopa was delivered for 24 hours via a subcutaneous infusion pump, which was shown to be a safe method of drug delivery, the research found. Participants were either were given levodopa subcutaneously through the infusion pump or via standard oral treatment.

While oral levodopa is effective and normally enables patients to reclaim normal motor function, its effects only last less than a few hours after a few years, Dr Alberto Espay, co-principal investigator of the trial, James J. and Joan A. Gardner Family Center for Parkinson’s Disease Research Endowed Chair in UC’s Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine and a physician at the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute explained. He noted that this means the treatment dose needs to be increased or administered more often.

NICE recommends first Parkinson’s treatment

Significance of the findings

A potential additional drug delivery option

Overall, these findings could provide additional treatment options for patients with Parkinson’s, Espay noted. He added that the trial results could lead to this specific infusion pump delivery system to be approved by regulatory bodies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“Once approved, this will become an important treatment strategy to consider for patients with Parkinson’s disease experiencing motor fluctuations not adequately controlled with medication,” he shared. “Future studies will need to determine the durability of the long-term benefits and whether any safety issues could emerge, as well as how it might compare with deep brain stimulation.”

Espay also stated that two additional subcutaneous delivery systems are also expected to be approved in 2024.

The research paper comparing the two drug delivery methods was published in The Lancet Neurology.