Oct. 10, 2006(UPI) - A once-daily patch containing an experimental
treatment for Parkinson's disease eases the symptoms of the movement
disorder illness, researchers told United Press International
Tuesday.
Treatment with the patches laced with the drug rotigotine
successfully treated patients for more than a year and a half,
preventing the abnormal movements, particularly tremors of the
hands, legs and head, that are hallmarks of the disease.

The patch, which is under review by the Food and Drug
Administration, could be on the market by June 2007.

"The rotigotine transdermal patch was generally safe and well
tolerated with a low rate of discontinuance due to adverse effects,"
Ray Watts, chairman of the department of neurology at the University
of Alabama at Birmingham, told UPI at the 131st annual meeting of
the American Neurological Association in Chicago.

"We think that use of the patch can help a person with early stage
Parkinson's disease hold off on use of levodopa for two to three
years," he said.

Levodopa, a mainstay of Parkinson's disease treatment, tends to
slowly lose effectiveness over the years, so that the longer a
patient can avoid starting the drug, the longer useful therapy will
be available down the road.

In a previous six-month trial, researchers demonstrated that
rotigotine was superior to placebo in preventing symptoms of
Parkinson's disease in patients.

"What makes the patch so good is that it delivers medicine
continuously," said Jeanne Rosner, director of the Parkinson's
Information Service in Chicago, a division of the Parkinson's
Disease Foundation.

"Patients don't have to worry about when they have to take their
drugs. They just put the patch on and go about their business," she
told UPI.

Rosner said there is the possibility that the patches may prove to
be better than standard treatments by eliminating the stress on the
body of going on and off medication. "We don't know that for a fact
yet," she said, "but it is something we think may be happening to
patients, and why after a while, some of these medications lose
potency in controlling the disease."

She said that the only downsides to the patches are application-site
reactions and side effects that occur with any drug.

In fact, Watts, in his presentation, acknowledged that twice as many
people on rotigotine experienced side effects of the drug -- mainly
application-site side effects and nausea -- as did those on placebo.

Overall, however, patients tend to tolerate the medicine very well,
said James Patton, a neurologist with Asheville Neurology
Specialists, a private-practice company in North Carolina that also
conducts pharmaceutical research.

"This is an exciting drug," Patton told UPI. "It has good patient
tolerance. It's very safe. The patients' laboratory tests didn't
change from using it."

He said it can be worn during a shower, but most patients figure out
that they should shower before putting on a new patch. It is
generally worn on the torso or arms.

"There was a low risk of dyskinesia -- the abnormal movements that
occur in Parkinson's -- with long-term administration of
rotigotine," Watts noted, "which may be consistent with its stable
24-hour blood plasma levels when administered through a transdermal
patch."

After the six-month comparative phase, 79 patients on placebo were
allowed to receive active treatment and joined 137 other patients in
receiving the active patches. The patients who previously had
received placebo patches quickly reduced their scores on quality-of-
life scales, indicating an improvement in their ability to
participate in activities of daily living, Watts said.

In another study at the meeting researchers said the patch appears
to work well for individuals suffering from restless leg syndrome, a
disorder that often makes sleep difficult and wrecks a person's
quality of life by making him or her sleepy during waking hours.

Researchers for Schwarz Pharma in Monheim, Germany, which funded the
studies, tested the drug in five different doses on 285 people
diagnosed with restless legs syndrome. Another group of 55 patients
received placebo.

An improvement in scores was seen at all doses of the drug.

Parkinson's affects 1.5 million people in the United States.

Oct. 10, 2006(UPI) -