April 21, 1999
Pharmacia's Parkinson's Drug Works Alone - Study
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A fairly new drug for Parkinson's disease,
Pharmacia & Upjohn's Mirapex, can help
patients without the aid of the only other drug available, levodopa,
researchers said Wednesday.
They said Mirapex, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in
1997, worked on its own for up to
three years in patients with the incurable disease.
``I believe this is a significant advancement in the way we treat
Parkinson's disease,'' Dr. Abraham Lieberman,
medical director of the National Parkinson Foundation, said in a
statement.
Parkinson's, which affects up to 1 percent of all people over the age of
60, is caused by the destruction of brain
cells that produce dopamine, an important signaling chemical involved in
movement.
Symptoms start with tremors, but the disease gets progressively worse,
eventually paralyzing and killing its victims.
For years the only treatment was levodopa, which helps to replace the
missing dopamine. But its effect wears off
after five years on average, and patients begin to suffer from side
effects.
Mirapex, known generically as pramipexole, helps to enhance the effects
of dopamine. It is usually given with
levodopa.
Dr. Susan Bressman of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New
York and colleagues tested Mirapex in
500 patients with Parkinson's in two studies. More than 260 patients
have stayed on the drug for three years. She
told a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology that 55 percent of
the patients in one study, and 60 percent
in the other, have stayed off levodopa for the three years with ``good
anti-Parkinson effects.''
Dr. Bruno Musch, vice president for medical affairs in Pharmacia's
neurology division, said Mirapex may help
doctors turn to levodopa only when patients really need it.
Pharmacia co-promotes Mirapex with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals,
Inc. of Ridgefield, Connecticut, a
subsidiary of Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim Corp..
Copyright © 1999 Reuters Limited.
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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