Cerevel's Parkinson's disease drug improves symptom control in late-stage trial

London: Cerevel Therapeutics said on Thursday its Parkinson's disease drug improved symptom control in patients when tested as an add-on therapy, meeting the main goal in a late-stage study.

The trial, which enrolled 507 adults, tested Cerevel's tavapadon as an add-on therapy to levodopa, the standard of care for the nervous system disorder that causes progressive brain damage and impacts movement.

The disease affects about 1 million people in the United States.

The results showed that patients using these two drugs experienced an increase of 1.1 hours in total "on" time without involuntary and erratic movements, compared to those treated with levodopa and placebo.

A statistically significant reduction was recorded in "off" time, periods of sudden spike in symptoms when movement becomes more difficult.

Patients between the ages of 40 and 80, diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and experiencing motor fluctuations, were enrolled in the trial.

The patients were on a stable dose of levodopa for at least four weeks prior to screening.

The drug developer said it will share additional data from late-stage trials testing the once-daily treatment tavapadon as a monotherapy in the second half of 2024.

In December, AbbVie agreed to buy Cerevel Therapeutics for about $8.7 billion. The deal is expected to close in the middle of 2024.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy and Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Shinjini Ganguli)