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Hi, I have seen the message by Ray Lakin about the PD conference in Germany. I can give following information on it. Last weekend we had a gathering of younger PD patients from all over Germany (Club U-40) in Oberwesel. As speaker we had invited Prof. Henneberg from the Parkinson clinic in Bad Nauheim. She will organize a symphosium on PD on Nov. 23, 1996 in Bad Nauheim (near Frankfurt). Researchers from various countries will attend (also from US) to have an exchange on latest developments in treatment of PD. I will attend this symphosium and will write a summary about salient new developments for the list members. So far an official programme is not yet available. Furthermore we had a meeting of our local PD support group last week and had invited Prof. Oertel ( Marburg University). He mentioned that a new drug is supposd to be released on the market next spring or summer. The research name is "COMT", some sort of blocker, more effective than pergolide (agonist). It shall reduce the fluctations of PD patients by reducing the L-Dopa peaks in the blood and shall enable a considerable reduction of L-Dopa intake at the same time. It is not yet sure where this drug will be available first (USA or Sweden) and what will be the trademark. Does anybody know about this drug? We are planning to create a "Net Link" between PD patients in Germany (in German language), to share information on PD events in Germany, articles, addresses, recommendable clinics etc. . Some people here are working on it and looking for advice. What is the best way for such an undertaking? Is a homepage in the Web the best way, perhaps in combination with an IRC chat channel in the UNDERNET? Does a similar Net already exist in other countries, where PD patients can retrieve information in their language? Any comment on it would be highly appreciated. Warm regards Dietmar Wessel (41/6) [log in to unmask]