Friday, 29 March 2024


Singapore develops single daily pill for Parkinson’s disease

21 September 2020 | News

The start-up is now working with clinical partners to plan the clinical trials

Image credit- NTU

Image credit- NTU

Materials scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a new pill which uses the stomach as a drug reservoir and delivers medicines slowly over time to patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Parkinson’s disease is a neuro-degenerative disorder which can be treated with Levodopa (L-dopa) taken orally. L-dopa is turned into dopamine by the human body, a chemical which is needed by the brain to relay signals needed for muscle control.

Currently, PD patients taking L-dopa may need to take up to six pills (doses) per day, with patients experiencing ‘wearing off’ effects between medications. Some patients also encounter a side-effect after a long duration of treatment, in which their limbs jerk or experience involuntary spasms, known as levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID).

An NTU-incubated start-up is now commercialising this new slow-release pill that delivers L-dopa over a period of 24 hours, which could help to alleviate these symptoms. The start-up, called LiberaTx, aims to use the new pill to tackle LID and low drug compliance by patients, in which they fail to take the multiple pills of L-dopa prescribed daily.

The LiberaTx team is now in midst of planning clinical trials in Singapore to test its efficacy.

Sign up for the editor pick and get articles like this delivered right to your inbox.

Editors Pick
+Country Code-Phone Number(xxx-xxxxxxx)


Comments

× Your session has been expired. Please click here to Sign-in or Sign-up
   New User? Create Account