The European Medicines Agency has announced approval of a new mid to late stage Parkinson's drug called Ongentys (opicapone) [1]. I generalize a lot, but put simply opicapone (taken in addition to C/L) is better than Stalevo, which is better than Sinemet, which is, in turn, better than plain levodopa.

Results show "off" times, per day, reduced by almost 2 hours compared with patients on Sinemet.

Opicapone will allow PwP to have smoother levels of levodopa, which should stop dyskinesia becoming a problem for longer.

Opicapone does not cure or slow the underlying progression of the disease.

Reference:

[1] http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/...C500209539.pdf

John

This "new" drug is a COMT inhibitor intended for use with CARBI/LEVO in PD. It was compared to entacapone in clinical trials to extend ON time in patients where Ongentys was found to be "at least as effective" as entacapone. It is a "me too" drug produced by a Portugese company in 25 and 50 mg capsules to be added to basic carb/levo or benzseride/levo just like entatapone, aka Comtan, which has been around many years. Stalevo combines all three; carbidopa, levodopa and entacapone.

it breaks down much more slowly than entacapone so you take far less and only once a day, have to wonder if it changes the color of urine which entacapone does with some people and diahrea in others if it doesn't have these side affects it's more than a "me too" drug.