Schwarz Pharma's rotigotine performs well in PD trial

German drugmaker Schwarz Pharma, which is in the process of being acquired by Belgium's UCB, says that it has seen positive results in a Phase III trial of its developmental dopamine agonist, rotigotine. Data from the study, which examined the agent as a treatment for early-stage Parkinson's disease, are published in the current on-line version of the journal Neurology.

The program was a randomized, multicenter, double-blind study that is designed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a once-daily dose of the drug administered via a transdermal patch, in patients with early PD. Principal study author Ray Watts, director of clinical research and chairman of neurology at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA, concluded that the 6mg dose of the drug was effective in terms of the change in Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale. Specifically, the data showed that those treated with the product achieved a mean decrease in UPDRS score of 3.98 over the trial's 27 week duration, versus a 1.31 increase in those who received placebo.