Each year, members of the Cure Parkinson’s research team collaborate with Parkinson’s research advocates and The Michael J. Fox Foundation to present an overview on the current clinical trials landscape for Parkinson’s. The 2024 report, now published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease (JPD), marks the fifth year of this effort.
Since 2019, the number of active clinical trials for Parkinson’s has remained relatively consistent, with the report counting 136 in 2023 compared to 139 the previous year. Although the proportion of disease-modifying to symptomatic therapies has been increasing over the past five years overall, this value remains almost the same in 2023 as it was in 2022 (44% compared to 45%).
One encouraging feature of the report is that the diversity of drug targets across both symptomatic and disease-modifying drugs has remained high. These targets determine what aspect of Parkinson’s biology a drug is addressing, showcasing a wide variety of approaches to treatments in trial. Interestingly, the number of trials investigating drugs aiming to improve non-motor symptoms has increased. Additionally, the number of drugs targeting inflammation have doubled from 2022 to 2023. This reflects the recent growth in our understanding of the role of inflammation as a driver of Parkinson’s progression and the significance of investigating this factor.
Our most recent JPD webinar focused on the role of inflammation in Parkinson’s. Watch the recording to find out more.
An ongoing challenge, as evidenced in this report, is the lack of progression of drugs from phase 2 to phase 3 of clinical testing, particularly in the disease-modifying space. 2023 saw the number of active phase 3 disease-modifying trials cut in half, from six to only three. Of the trials not retained from last year, the status of two are unknown while another was combined with an ongoing phase 2 study of the same drug due to trial complexity. Of the three active phase 3 clinical trials, Cure Parkinson’s is supporting two of them.
With the importance of disease-modifying therapies for an eventual cure for Parkinson’s, there is a clear need for further initiatives that will facilitate the progression of drugs through the clinical trial pipeline and into subsequent phases of testing. Cure Parkinson’s has supported a number of initiatives over the years to help address this, both in the UK and globally.
One programme leading in the space is the International Linked Clinical Trials (iLCT) committee. Created in partnership with Van Andel Institute (VAI), this committee of 20-30 of the world’s leading Parkinson’s experts meet annually to discuss and prioritise potentially disease-modifying treatments for clinical trials in Parkinson’s. Now in its 13th year, the impact of the committee can be seen within the pipeline itself; over 30% of the drugs in clinical trials for Parkinson’s in 2023 had been evaluated by the iLCT committee.
Furthermore, Cure Parkinson’s has been instrumental in the setting up of the upcoming ACT-PD project – a multi-arm, multi-stage clinical trial platform aiming to accelerate and support disease-modifying trials for Parkinson’s in the UK. It is our hope with initiatives such as these that we see an increase in the most promising treatments making it to phase 3 trials that will accelerate us towards a cure.
One of the truly remarkable features of the last five years of these reports is that the number of active clinical trials has stayed relatively stable. This is ‘remarkable’ because we had a global pandemic in the middle of this period of time. It is a testament to the participants and the researchers involved that activities were not more disrupted. And Cure Parkinson’s is proud of the role we play behind the scenes.
Dr Simon Stott, Director of Research, Cure Parkinson’s
