Transdermal rotigotine (Neupro) up to doses of 8 and 12 mg/day as adjunctive therapy to levodopa significantly decreases “off time” in patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease, according to phase III data presented at the 59th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN).
Peter A. LeWitt, MD, professor of neurology at Wayne State University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, reported results in 351 patients with advanced idiopathic Parkinson’s disease who had been randomized to placebo or two target doses of rotigotine (up to either 8 mg/24h or 12mg/24h) for up to seven months. Rotigotine is a non-ergolinic dopamine receptor agonist available as a patch for once-daily use.
The trial, known as Prospective Randomized Evaluation of a new Formulation: Efficacy of Rotigotine (PREFER), included a five-week titration phase followed by a 24-week maintenance phase.
The primary efficacy variable was change from baseline in absolute off time.
Compared to baseline, mean daily decreases in off time were 2.7 hours with the 8mg/24h dose and 2.1 hours with the 12mg/24h dose compared to a 0.9 hour decrease with placebo (P Jillstein03@cs.com
Jill Stein is a Paris-based freelance medical writer