The closely watched clinical trial of a potential new gene-therapy treatment for Parkinson’s disease has disappointed researchers. Clinical trials have not found evidence that the treatment works.
Ceregene Inc., the company that was testing the efficacy of neurturin, or CERE-120, reported that a Phase II trial testing the efficacy of the treatment “did not demonstrate an appreciable difference” between the experience among patients with Parkinson’s disease treated with neurturin and the members of a control group. Neurturin is a growth factor similar to GDNF that is delivered using a viral gene therapy technique.
This comes as a significant blow to current Parkinson’s disease research, as well as the hopes of many in the Parkinson’s disease community. The trial was one of the most promising treatments under investigation and the drug would have significantly reduced Parkinson’s disease symptoms.
“The news offers us yet another lesson…in how difficult, how uncertain, how frustrating, is the process of clinical research,” writes Robin Elliott, executive director of the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. “In the cause of making sure that every new treatment that hits the market is both safe and effective, we live by a process that takes years to deliver results, costs millions of dollars, and is always subject to potential disappointment.”
But researchers, experts, and the Parkinson’s disease community remain hopeful that more research will reveal successful treatments in the future.
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