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will johnston wrote: > > Dear friends on the listserv, > > I am one of the people taking the experimental drug "ENTACAPONE" produced by > Orion Pharma of Espoo, Finland - probably to be marketed by Sandoz. > > ENTACAPONE is a COMT inhibitor which I understand does not cross the > blood/brain barrier, but protects the levodopa in Sinemet from attack by > forces in the torso, much like carbidopa but against a different predator. > > I have seen a good bit of traffic among the 'Prammy' users, but about > nothing from Entacapone users. Are there any other Entacapone users out there? > WILL JOHNSTON WILL- I took part in the Entacapone study. Last year I spent 6 months on what I am sure was placebo- for reasons I won't tell you in case you are part of the double blind study. I was then enrolled in the open label part of the study (to establish long term safety) which I stayed in for 3-6 months. I developed worse dyskinesia during that phase but less wearing off and was more stable. At the end of the year in preparation for the fetal transplant study I later took part in I had to stop the entacapone. Since thewre is the question of entacapone damaging the kidneys and my tranplant protocol included cyclosporin which is known to affect kidney function the study team felt that the data would be possibly contaminated if something happened to my kidney function. Stopping the entacapone led to 2-4 weks of the worst off times I had ever had until my sinemet dose was significantly readjusted. On the whole it was useful and when it comes out on the market I would like to take it again. Charlie -