Joe Young - Try this info: From: Jennifer Kinscy <[log in to unmask]> To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN <PARKINSN@lis... Date: 1/14/98 10:34am Subject: Requip Information from SmithKline Beecham Good Morning Listserv Members, My name is Jennifer Kinscy and I work with SmithKline Beecham, manufacturers of Requip. I just wanted to share their latest news with you. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about Requip. Thanks! Jenny Kinscy, Media Connection of New York * * * * * * * * * * * * * NEW STUDIES PROVIDE FURTHER EVIDENCE THAT REQUIP IS AN EFFECTIVE TREATMENT FOR EARLY PARKINSON'S DISEASE Additional clinical evidence supports use of Requip early in disease as part of comprehensive treatment approach Philadelphia, PA, January 13, 1998 - Requip (ropinirole hydrochloride, SmithKline Beecham) is an effective treatment for early stage Parkinson's disease, according to two new studies published this month in Movement Disorders. In one study in which patients were treated with either Requip or levodopa (L-dopa), Requip was shown to be as effective as levodopa in early stage Parkinson's disease (Hoehn & Yahr stages I-II); levodopa, however, was more effective in advanced patients (Hoehn & Yahr stages II.5-III). In another study, Requip was more efficacious than bromocriptine. Requip is a second generation dopamine agonist that was recently cleared for marketing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of Parkinson's disease, both as initial therapy and as adjunctive treatment with levodopa. "There is a need for Parkinson's disease treatments that can be used in theearly stages of the disease to control symptoms and delay the need for levodopa, a traditionally used Parkinson's disease drug that is often associated with motor complications after long term use. Not only were we able to avoid giving the patients treated with Requip additional drugs such as levodopa, but we also observed sustained improvements in motor functioning," said O. Rascol, M.D., department of clinical pharmacology and clinical investigation center, faculty of medicine, University Hospital in Toulouse, France, and one of the lead study investigators. Requip Effective in Patients with Early Parkinson's Disease In a planned six-month interim analysis from an ongoing five-year, double-blind, multicenter trial, patients with early Parkinson's disease (Hoehn and Yahr stages I-III) were randomized to receive either Requip (n=179) or levodopa (n=89). The principal measure of efficacy was the percent improvement from baseline in the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) total motor examination score (Part III). Efficacy was also based on the following: 1) percentage of patients who were considered responders, defined as at least a 30 percent reduction from baseline in the motor score on the UPDRS; 2) percentage of patients considered to be improved, defined by a score of 1 (very much improved) or 2 (much improved) on the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale; and 3) the percentage of patients who required additional levodopa. There was no statistically significant difference in the percent improvement of UPDRS motor score between patients treated with Requip and levodopa-treated patients in the earliest stages of Parkinson's disease (Hoehn & Yahr stages I-II). In addition, for this same patient population, there was no statistically significant difference between the two treatment groups in the percentage of patients who were considered to be improvedbased on the CGI scale. When considering all patients who entered the study (Hoehn & Yahr I-III), including those patients with advanced disease, there was a significantly greater percentage improvement in the UPDRS motor score for levodopa-treated patients compared with those patients treated with Requip (44 percent versus 32 percent, respectively). Few patients in either treatment group required additional levodopa (4 percent of Requip-treated patients and 1 percent of levodopa-treated patients). New Study Shows Requip is Significantly Better than Bromocriptine In a planned six-month interim analysis from a three-year international, multicenter, double-blind comparative clinical trial, patients were randomized to receive either Requip (n=168) or bromocriptine (n=167). Thirty-three percent of patients received selegiline concomitantly with either Requip or bromocriptine. Of those enrolled, 287 patients were evaluated. Efficacy was based on the following: 1) percentage of patients who were considered responders, defined as at least a 30 percent reduction from baseline in the total motor examination score on the UPDRS; 2) percentage of patients considered to be improved, defined by a score of 1 (very much improved) or 2 (much improved) on the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale; and 3) the percentage of patients who required additional levodopa. The overall percent improvement from baseline in UPDRS motor score in all treatment groups was 35 percent for the patients treated with Requip compared with 27 percent for the bromocriptine-treated patients. Among patients who did not receive concomitant selegiline, there was a statistically significantly greater percent improvement in total UPDRS motor score for Requip-treated patients compared with bromocriptine-treated patients (34 percent versus 20 percent, respectively). In patients who didreceive selegiline concomitantly improvements were similar (34 percent for Requip versus 37 percent for bromocriptine). Overall, there was a significantly greater proportion of "improvers" in all treatment groups on the CGI scale in the patients treated with Requip (48 percent) compared with the bromocriptine group (40 percent). Of the patients who did not receive concomitant selegiline, 46 percent of patients treated with Requip were considered "improvers" versus 30 percent of the patients treated with bromocriptine; this difference was also statistically significant. In patients who received selegiline concomitantly, there was no statistically significant difference between the proportion of patients treated with Requip and bromocriptine-treated patients (53 percent versus 58 percent, respectively). In addition, few patients treated with Requip (7 percent) required supplemental levodopa compared with 11 percent of bromocriptine-treated patients. "These results provide further evidence that newer dopamine agonists such as Requip can be used as first-line therapy to effectively control the motor symptoms of early Parkinson's disease," said A.D. Korczyn, M.D., department of neurology, faculty of medicine, Tel-Aviv University , Tel-Aviv, Israel. "We are pleased to see that Requip is safe and effective in treating patients with less advanced disease and hope that these results will encourage physicians to begin therapy with dopamine agonists earlier." Requip was generally well-tolerated in both studies. The most common adverse event reported was nausea. Other side effects that occurred less frequently include involuntary movements, somnolence and dizziness. All Parkinson's patients should be informed that syncope or symptomatic hypotension may occur more frequently during initial treatment or with an increase in dose. Hallucinations can occur at any time during the course of treatment with dopamine agonists such as Requip. A Progressive Neurodegenerative Disorder Parkinson's disease, which affects between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Americans, is a chronic and progressive disorder that results from the death of nerve cells in a critical area of the brain called the substantia nigra. These nerve cells normally produce dopamine, a chemical messenger that plays an important role in motor movement control by transmitting signals between the substantia nigra and another critical area of the brain called the striatum. Dopamine depletion results in a patient's impaired ability to control motor movements. Requip is a second-generation dopamine agonist that has high in-vitro specificity at the d2 and d3 dopamine receptor subtypes and works by mimicking the effects of dopamine. A Leader in Health Care SmithKline Beecham (NYSE:SBH) -- one of the world's leading healthcare companies-discovers, develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceuticals, vaccines, over-the-counter medicines and health-related consumer products, and provides healthcare services including clinical laboratory testing, disease management and pharmaceutical benefit management. For company information, visit SmithKline Beecham on the World Wide Web at http://www.sb.com. # # #