Sandoz To License Orion Parkinson's Drug

Sandoz has licensed worldwide rights to a Parkinson's disease drug developed by Orion Pharma of Finland, in a bid to strengthen its Parkinson's franchise. The drug, called entacapone, is a catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitor currently in Phase III testing.

COMT and monoamine oxidase are the two principal enzymes concerned with the catabolism of catecholamines in the central nervous system. Inhibitors of these enzymes facilitate neurotransmission, including dopaminergic neurotransmission, by preventing the breakdown of transmitter.

Entacapone is being investigated for use as adjunctive therapy with the widely-prescribed Parkinson's disease drugs Sinemet (carbidopa-levodopa; DuPont Merck) and Madopar (benserazide-levodopa; Roche). The goal of this concomitant therapy, notes Sandoz, is to prolong and enhance the effectiveness of levodopa-based ther-apy and thus reduce or delay the onset of the motor impairment which characterizes the disease. "Entacapone adds, rather than replaces, options for Parkinson's patients," said Daniel Vasella, chief executive of Sandoz Pharma.