News
New drug to treat Parkinson's disease
What did the late Pope John Paul II., boxing champion Mohamed Ali and actor Michael J. Fox have in common?
They all had Parkinson's disease. This is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that is caused by a gradual degeneration of dopamine producing nerve cells.
Parkinson's disease affects over 6 million people worldwide
It is characterised mostly by movement problems, known as "motor symptoms", including tremor, rigidity and a slowing of physical movement. Patients who suffer from Parkinson’s disease are also commonly affected by "non-motor symptoms" such as sleep problems, mood problems and pain. These issues can seriously affect a persons’ quality of life and are often under-recognised, can lead to disability, dependency on others, lower quality of life and shorter life expectancy.
A new drug product to treat Parkinson’s disease in the form of a transdermal patch – rotigotine (neupro®) – is now available to Slovenian patients
Rotigotine is a new non-ergoline dopamine agonist, which reduces the shortage of dopamine, characteristic for Parkinson’s disease. It efficiently improves motor and non-motor symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease as well as sleep problems. It is the first dopamine agonist in the form of a patch and a new treatment option. The Rotigotine transdermal patch is particularly suitable for patients who have difficulty swallowing pills (dysphagia) or have delayed emptying of gastric contents (gastroparesis).
Patients with Parkinson’s disease must often adjust food intake to a drug product dosing regimen. The advantage of rotigotine over oral dopamine agonists is that there are no interactions with food and it avoids first-pass metabolism in liver, therefore the potential of interaction with drugs is lower.
Parkinson’s disease patients can visit a web-site called Today I will…, where they can share their achievements and set goals with other patients, friends, carers or relatives, regardless of the fact how much they can achieve or how great or low their expectations are. The web-site sponsor is UCB, a company that encourages people with Parkinson’s disease to share their experiences, stories, promises and motivation.
UCB is represented in Slovenia by the pharmaceutical company Medis, d.o.o.
