LONDON, England – Nearly 1,000 people in England with advanced Parkinson’s disease are set to benefit from a groundbreaking new treatment. The National Health Service (NHS) will be rolling out Produodopa, a treatment that involves wearing a portable kit 24 hours a day.
This new treatment will use a pump to steadily release medicine into the bloodstream round the clock, eliminating the need for patients to take more than 20 pills a day. The treatment is a combination of two drugs, foslevodopa and foscarbidopa, that work by turning foslevodopa into the chemical dopamine, helping manage symptoms such as excessive movement or tremors.
The small, automatic pump releases a steady flow of the treatment 24 hours a day and can also be manually boosted if needed. Participants in the trial, including 70-year-old John Whipps, have reported significant improvements in their quality of life. John commented that his life is now much more “plannable” since starting the new treatment, as he no longer needs to wake in the middle of the night to take more tablets for his symptoms.
NHS England’s medical director for specialised services, James Palmer, praised the drug’s rollout as “great news,” and expressed hopes that it will help patients to manage their symptoms more effectively and improve their quality of life.
This innovative treatment has recently been approved for NHS use by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, following successful clinical trials. Advocates from Parkinson’s UK described Produodopa as a potential “life-changing option” for some people, although it may not be suitable for everyone with Parkinson’s.
Parkinson’s disease, a condition in which parts of the brain become progressively damaged over many years, currently affects around 128,000 people in England, according to the NHS. With the introduction of Produodopa, there is new hope for patients struggling to manage their symptoms with existing treatments.