Coronal view of human brain in Parkinson’s disease patient
Sherbrooke Connected Imaging Laboratory | Getty Images
A very popular class of drugs to treat diabetes and obesity is on display early potential Also helps people with Parkinson’s disease.
An older method of treating diabetes is called Lisila came The drug helped slow the progression of movement disorder in early-stage patients after 12 months, according to results from a small mid-stage trial released on Wednesday.This drug is made from SanofiIs similar to GLP-1 Novo NordiskDiabetes shot Ozempic and weight loss shot Wegovy are the bombshells.
Dyskinesia refers to symptoms such as tremors, stiffness, and slowness of movement that can cause patients to have difficulty walking, speaking, and swallowing. Researchers from France said larger, longer-term studies are needed to fully determine Sanofi’s efficacy and safety in treating patients with degenerative brain diseases, including how long the effects last.
Nonetheless, as a result, publish Published in the New England Journal of Medicine late Wednesday, the study marks an encouraging step forward in decades-long efforts to tackle Parkinson’s disease. As many as 500,000 Americans have been diagnosed with the disease, which is characterized by damage to nerve cells in the brain.
The results also add to the potential health benefits of GLP-1, which has seen a surge in demand over the past year to help patients lose weight and regulate blood sugar.But more research is needed to determine whether Novo Nordisk and newer iterations of Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 Eli Lilly and Company May also be helpful for people with Parkinson’s disease.
Both drugmakers are studying their own weight loss and diabetes treatments for people with conditions such as sleep apnea and fatty liver disease, but neither is studying their drugs’ effectiveness in treating Parkinson’s disease.
Sanofi will withdraw lixisenatide from the market in early 2023. The French drugmaker said, discontinued The decision to treat is a business decision independent of its safety and effectiveness.
Sanofi provided the drug to the researchers and advised them on its properties but was not involved in the new phase 2 trial, which is being run by the French Ministry of Health and Prevention and a British company called Cure Parkinson’s. Funding from charitable organizations.
Sanofi said in a statement to CNBC that it was “pleased to see the positive results of this study.” The company added that it was willing to “discuss with the study’s researchers to provide support for the next phase of their research.”
The trial followed 156 people with early-stage Parkinson’s disease for a year. All participants in the study were taking commonly used Parkinson’s medications. But one group received extra daily injections of the Sanofi drug, and the other group received a placebo.
Patients who received lixisenatide had essentially no progression of motor symptoms, while those who took placebo showed worsening of their motor problems. The differences between the two groups were modest, but remained true two months after the trial was stopped and patients stopped treatment entirely.
But using Sanofi’s drug increases the risk of gastrointestinal side effects, which are common with all GLP-1 drugs. In trials, nearly half of patients taking the drug experienced nausea, and 13% reported vomiting.
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