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| |  New Parkinson's Drug Approved TORONTO -- August 26, 1997 -- Health Canada has approved a new treatment to help Canadians fighting Parkinson's disease. The medication, called ReQuip(TM) (ropinirole hydrochloride), was approved last week and gives physicians a solution to an age-old dilemma associated with the standard Parkinson's therapy -- levodopa, or L-dopa. ReQuip is the first dopamine agonist in Canada to be given the indication for both early therapy (without concomitant levodopa) as well as adjunct therapy with levodopa. Its novel, non-ergoline chemical structure helps to avoid the adverse experiences that have been reported with the existing dopamine agonists. Developed by SmithKline Beecham Inc., the approval of ReQuip allows physicians to tackle a problem patients have faced since L-dopa gained acceptance in the early 70's. Although L-dopa is successful in treating Parkinson's symptoms like tremors, bradykinesia or slowness in movement, and rigidity, its side effects - uncontrollable movements called dyskinesias -- eventually prove devastating to the quality of life of Parkinsonians. “L-dopa has been an effective treatment but prolonged use causes side effects which can be as problematic as the Parkinson's symptoms it treats,'' said Dr. Michel Panisset, Assistant Director of Clinical Research at the McGill Centre for Studies in Aging. "Physicians need to carefully evaluate the patients' quality of life and begin to spare L-dopa dosage when possible.'' Dr. C. Warren Olanow, Chairman at the Department of Neurology at New York's Mount Sinai Medical Centre, has helped research the use of ReQuip to reduce the need for L-dopa in Parkinsonians. “A sound therapeutic strategy for the Parkinson's disease patient is to use ReQuip in the early stages of the disease to counteract the symptoms like bradykinesia and tremors. Eventually, the disease will progress to the point where L-dopa will need to be added to treatment. By using ReQuip as the initial therapy, and adding L-dopa to ReQuip later on, symptom control is still achieved, but the risk of side effects associated with long-term L-dopa use are delayed and reduced in frequency.'' ReQuip mimics dopamine, a chemical transmitter found in healthy nerve cells in the brain. In an individual with Parkinson's, the loss of dopamine, caused by deteriorating dopamine neurons, affects movement. Additional research also demonstrated that ReQuip can be used in combination with L-dopa. This also helps to reduce the overall L-dopa dose, and potentially delays the side effects associated with L-dopa therapy. The cause of Parkinson's disease is unknown and there is no known cure. One hundred thousand Canadians - most of them over the age of 60 - suffer from Parkinson's. Although Parkinson's is typically seen in the older population, 10 per cent of Parkinsonians develop the disorder before age 40. SmithKline Beecham Pharma Canada, a division of SmithKline Beecham Inc., is one of Canada's fastest growing innovative pharmaceutical companies. SmithKline Beecham strongly believes in improving the quality of life for all Canadians by supporting new research initiatives, bringing new treatment information to patients and sponsoring a wide variety of community projects. SmithKline Beecham's primary areas of research include depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, Parkinson's disease, vaccines, cancer treatments, shingles, herpes, heart failure, antibiotics and arthritis. More information on: SmithKline Beecham
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