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Unmet Needs
Most new PD cases are expected to affect people over the age of 60. In addition, the number of elderly people with PD is expected to double during the next two decades. PD management needs to focus on earlier diagnosis and use of more precise and effective medicines to inhibit the burden on patients and society.
There is a number of challenging unmet needs from the patients’ point of view. To mention a few:
- Early detection of the non-motor related symptoms that appear up to a decade prior to the classic motor related symptoms
- Improved scanning modalities that are more specifically related to PD and its progression, e.g. DAT scanning that can visualise the dopamine system in the basal ganglia and help differentiate essential tremor from Parkinsonian Syndromes
- Disease-modifying treatment options that stop or minimise the degeneration of the nerve cells
- The development of better treatment of both motor and non-motor symptoms
Providers are targeting unmet clinical needs by focusing on R&D within areas such as:
- Better understanding of the underlying mechanisms causing the cellular degeneration
- Early markers for identification and definition of early non-motor related symptoms, e.g. depression, altered olfactory function, altered gastrointestinal functions, and sleep disorders
- Physiological markers for defining changes in autonomic functions, e.g. blood pressure alterations, improved methods in the identification of autonomic and biological signals
- Biomarkers to detect and define proteins in cerebrospinal fluid and blood, e.g. Alpha-Synuclein, Amyloid and Tau proteins
- Management of levodopa-induced motor response complications (MRCs), such as motor fluctuations and dyskinesias
- Other approaches in early stage PD including adenosine A2A receptor antagonism, alpha 2 adrenergic receptor antagonism, and gene therapy
