Valeant’s Zelapar ‘significantly reduces Parkinson’s off time’

Valeant has revealed that Zelapar, its new treatment for Parkinson’s disease, significantly reduces patients’ “off time” – the times of the day when they are most affected because their drug treatment has worn off.

Zelapar, approved by the FDA yesterday, is a once-daily therapy for patients already treated with levodopa/carbidopa. It is designed to be used when the effectiveness of these standard treatment drugs starts to reduce. Valeant says it is the first Parkinson’s treatment to use an oral delivery system called Zydis Technology, which allows tablets to dissolve within a matter of seconds.

In clinical trials, after one week of Zelapar use, patients demonstrated a “significantly reduced” off time in comparison to the placebo. After 12 weeks of treatment, patients had 2.2 hours less off time per day, compared to the placebo’s reduction of 0.6 hours per day.

Valeant’s president and chief executive officer, Timothy C Tyson, stated: “The approval of Zelapar means that patients now have an additional alternative that can help them significantly reduce their daily ‘off’ time during waking hours.”

“Zelapar is the second therapy Valeant has brought to market to help in the treatment of Parkinson?s disease, and we remain committed to the Parkinson’s disease community and to providing therapies that fill the tremendous unmet medical need,” he added.

Zelapar works by inhibiting monoamine oxidase-B, a type of enzyme that inactivates neurotransmitters such as dopamine, of which low levels are a major cause of Parkinson’s disease symptoms.

One in 500 Britons have Parkinson’s disease, according to the Parkinson’s Disease Society. It says that the disease by itself does not directly cause people to die and that life expectancy is “fairly normal” with the use of modern drugs.

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