Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that results from the death of certain dopamine producing neurons in the brain that aid in regulating motor control and other non-motor functions.1
Parkinson’s disease, once established, is a lifelong and progressive disease that affects approximately one million people in the U.S.2 It is estimated that over 350,000 people with Parkinson’s disease experience daily “OFF” time. 3,4,5
“OFF” is referred to as time when an individual’s Parkinson’s symptoms return, often because their medication is not working optimally.6 While not all people with Parkinson’s disease experience OFF time, it is more common for those who have taken levodopa – the standard of care and most widely prescribed drug for Parkinson’s disease – for long periods of time.7 Unfortunately, the complexity and multidimensionality of OFF time makes it challenging to both treat and predict. OFF can occur at any time – and even multiple times – during the day, with morning OFF time being the most common.10
For these reasons, novel treatment approaches and improving the identification of OFF time in Parkinson’s disease remains a high unmet need for this community, particularly as the disease progresses.
•
Tremor
•
Slowness
•
Stiffness
•
Walking/balance problems
•
Feelings of anxiety
•
Mental fogginess and/or profuse sweating
Impel Pharmaceuticals is currently developing INP107, a non-invasive, self- or caregiver-administered upper nasal formulation of carbidopa/levodopa, with the goal of providing rapid delivery of drug for the treatment of morning OFF episodes.
References
1 NIH. Patient & Caregiver Information. What is Parkinson’s disease? Last Accessed February 3, 2020.
2 Marras, C. et al, on behalf of the Parkinson’s Foundation P4 Group (2018). Npj Parkinson’s Disease, 4(1), 1–7.
3 Statistics on Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. http://www.pdf.org/en/parkinson_statistics. Accessed April 2017.
4 Ahlskog JE et al. Mov Disord. 2001;16(3):448-458
5 Decision Resources. Parkinson’s Disease (Report: January 2015).
6 Olanow CW et al. Neurology. 2009;72(21 suppl 4)S1-S136.
7 Hametner E et al. J Neurol. 2010;257(Suppl 2):S268-S275.
10 Hechtner MC et al. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2014;20(9):969-974.