Daily use of Teva Pharmaceuticals' (TASE, Nasdaq: TEVA) drug Azilect improves motor symptoms among Parkinson's patients, the company revealed at the Movement Disorder Society's 11th International Congress in Istanbul on Wednesday.
Parkinson's is an incurable degenerative disease of the nervous system, caused by a shortage of dopamine in the brain. It is characterized by deteriorating motor function and paralysis.
Azilect (rasagiline tablets) was approved by the FDA on May 17, 2006, for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of PD, both as initial monotherapy and as adjunct therapy to levodopa.
Dr. John Bertoni of Creighton University, a Jesuit institution in Omaha, Nebraska, described the results of a new post-hoc analysis of the 26-week, multicenter, randomized, double-blind study including 404 patients.
The subjects received once-daily Azilect or a placebo. The analysis found that a daily Azilect regimen as monotherapy (without other drugs) provided a consistent beneficial effect on the symptoms of PD - regardless of the duration of the disease at the time treatment was started, Teva said.
