Helping Parkinson's Patients 'Rescue' Themselves from Off Episodes

TORONTO, Aug. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- While we all have "off" periods, those who suffer from Parkinson's—a progressive neurodegenerative disease—experience a different kind of off time. A significant fraction of those with the disease often wake up in a rigid or frozen state with impaired movement and/or inability to speak. This most often occurs on waking, when their last dose of levodopa + carbidopa ("L-dopa")—taken before bedtime—has long since worn off. Add to this that the majority of Parkinson's patients experience varying degrees of depression, anxiety, hallucinations, delusions, confusion, disrupted sleep and compulsive behavior, and you can just imagine how waking up in a rigid state can adversely affect their quality of life and that of their family members.

Cynapsus Therapeutics Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company based in Toronto, is working to make life easier for these patients in a novel way. The only approved rapid rescue medication that can release the person with Parkinson's from that rigid state, apomorphine, has a serious downside: it can only be given by injection. Cynapsus is intent in providing patients with non-injectable delivery of apomorphine. Their lead drug candidate, APL-130277, a fast-acting oral reformulation of apomorphine, is a sublingual strip that dissolves under the tongue. The major advantage here is that if approved, it would be easier for many to self-administer.

Today, many types of therapy are being used in an effort to improve the lives of people with Parkinson's, including getting them to dance—and not just any dance. Three years ago, Italian neurologist Daniele Volpe accidentally discovered the therapeutic effects of Irish set dancing on Parkinson's patients. As one of the dance teachers said in a recent article in the Irish Independent: "We have seen big progress for our dancers. They are better with their movement and equilibrium and they are also a little bit happier."

While dancing is a great activity, "We hope that we'll be able to make millions of people with Parkinson's more than a little bit happier when they wake up each day," says Cynapsus Therapeutics President and CEO Anthony Giovinazzo.

Cynapsus is focused on maximizing the value of APL-130277 by completing pivotal studies in advance of a New Drug Application (NDA) expected to be submitted to the FDA in 2015.

To learn more, visit www.cynapsus.ca.

Contact:  Laura Radocaj, Dian Griesel Int'l.  212.825.3210

SOURCE Cynapsus Therapeutics Inc.