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Hi, Ray, Maybe I should introduce myself before answering your question. I'm 55 years old, was diagnosed with PD over 10 years ago, and of course I had plenty of symptoms for years before that. I've been a member of this forum for about 10 years, mainly as a lurker. I was an electronics engineer until I retired in December of 2004. The prescription drugs I generally take too much of are Sinemet 25/100, Tasmar and Mirapex. Later today I plan to introduce my body to 1 mg per day of Azilect. I've been having some fluctuations (unpredictable on-offs) with my current mix so I'm hoping that the addition of this new drug will smooth things out for me. Getting to your question, What's in a name? The drug I believe you're referring to is Aricept (donepezil). The new drug for PD is Azilect (rasagiline). It's pretty amazing how close these names are to each other. I'll bet there will be lots of confusion from this for a long time to come. Aricept is used for the treatment of mild to moderate dementia in Alzheimer's Disease. Azilect is used for the treatment of Parkinson's Disease. The drug is a monoamine oxidase type-B (MAO-B) inhibitor that slows the breakdown of dopamine within the brain. Azilect was approved for use with Parkinson's Disease by the FDA on May 17, 2006. Apparently it takes a few months from the FDA approval date for a pharmaceutical company to actually get a new drug packaged and distributed to the retail pharmacies. It's a monomine oxidase inhibitor (MAO-B) similar to selegiline (Eldepryl, Deprenyl) but it does not break down in the body to amphetamine. Here's the link to the FDA's press release. www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01373.html I know 2 people who have been importing Azilect from Canada. They both claim that the drug is helping them considerably. I'm guessing that there are a lot of people out there holding prescriptions for Azilect. I'm still waiting for my prescription to be filled. The latest info I have is that it should be ready for me at about 11AM today (Saturday). The pharmacist said that their main wholesaler has already exhausted its initial stock and the pharmacy will be getting it from an alternate supplier. Warren ----Original Message----- From: Parkinson's Information Exchange Network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of rayilynlee Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2006 11:38 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Azilect is becoming available in the US Warren, thanks for the info on Azilect. Isn't that the drug that works well for Alzheimer's? Let us know how it works for you. Ray ----- Original Message ----- From: "Warren Newman" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 2:11 PM Subject: Azilect is becoming available in the US > Azilect (rasagiline) is now available to PWP's in the US or will be within > a > few days. > > > > My local CVS pharmacist said it is now listed in her main computer and she > ordered it for me today. She said she will have it for me tomorrow or > Friday. > > > > I also called Teva's (the Israel-based manufacturer) Customer Service > department (215 591 3000) and they said that they have already shipped it > out to all of their US distributors. > > > > The Quest for the Cure website (http://www.questforcure.net/) is opening a > user forum dedicated to Azilect. > > > > Warren Newman > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: > mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn