Most drugs attempt to treat Parkinson's disease by increasing dopamine that is lost as Parkinson's patients deteriorate. But spikes of dopamine every time a patient takes the drug can cause uncontrollable body movements.
Some companies have improved the drugs by making extended release versions -- Merck's (NYSE: MRK ) Sinemet CR and Impax Laboratories' (Nasdaq: IPXL ) IPX066 for example -- which can reduce the number of pills patients have to pop every day and increase efficacy at the same time.
Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT ) has taken a different approach, eliminating the pills altogether. Yesterday, the company released interim data for its pump, which delivers a levodopa-carbidopa gel directly into the patient's small intestine.
The portable pump provides continuous supply of the drug during waking hours. The trial will follow patients for 54 weeks, but the interim data at 12 weeks look promising. The drug decreased the "off " time when patients don't have control of their mobility and increased the amount of "on" time, when the patient's symptoms are well-managed. It also reduced the involuntary movements.
Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY ) and Medtronic (NYSE: MDT ) are taking a similar strategy of pumping in a drug to keep a constant concentration. But they're delivering a drug with a rocky past directly to the brain, which certainly seems like a riskier strategy.
As with any study, there are a few caveats to Abbott's trial. The trial was open label, which means everyone knows that they got the drug. There's potential for a placebo effect to make the drug-device look better than it actually is and there's no placebo group to compare the results with.
The pump also requires a surgery to insert the catheter into the small intestine, which can potentially create problems that popping pills doesn't -- over 30% of patients reported abdominal pain, for instance. But only 7.3% of patients withdrew from the study because of adverse reactions, so the issues can't be that bad.
Stay tuned for the full results from this study (and another one expected at the end of the year) -- but it sure looks like Abbott may have a new product to pump in some additional revenue shortly.
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