Could a medication similar to the blockbuster weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy slow the ravages of Parkinson's disease?
A new, small study suggests it could: Over the course of a year, a group of French researchers followed 156 people with early Parkinson's who were randomly givenWhat did they discover? Parkinson's symptoms like tremor, stiffness, slowness and balance got worse in those taking the placebo but not in those taking the drug.
Experts said the findings are a good starting point for future research on the drug's powers against the movement disorder. It is not a slam dunk, but it is “nibbling at the edges of disease modification,” Dr. Michael Okun, a Parkinson's disease expert at the University of Florida who was not part of the study, told the, said the study was “very important,” but she cautioned the early research was only designed to test a hypothesis.
“There are many, many examples of very promising Phase 2 trials,” she told the Times. “People get very excited, and then it doesn't pan out.”, possibly because the researchers started with the highest dose instead of gradually increasing the dosage. When a third of patients had side effects that became intolerable, the investigators halved their dose.
For the researchers, led by Dr. Wassilios Meissner of the University of Bordeaux and Dr. Olivier Rascol of the University of Toulouse, it wasn't that far-fetched to think a GLP-1 drug might slow Parkinson's.While the researchers said they want to do a larger and longer study, Sanofi withdrew the drug in the United States and has started withdrawing it worldwide.
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