The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Juvmo, a once-daily Parkinson’s pill designed to help adults manage movement symptoms.
The drug, known as tavapadon, can be used alone or alongside levodopa, an established treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
Clinical trials found improved movement-related scores in people with early-stage Parkinson’s. When added to levodopa, tavapadon provided approximately 1.1 additional hours of good daily “on” time, when movement symptoms are better controlled.
The FDA granted approval on 25 September. Pharmaceutical company AbbVie subsequently announced plans to make the treatment available in October.
Research by University of Virginia scientists Richard Mailman and Xuemei Huang helped establish the approach of targeting D1-like dopamine receptors to manage Parkinson’s symptoms.
Parkinson’s progressively damages nerve cells that produce dopamine, a chemical messenger involved in movement control. Falling dopamine levels contribute to tremor, stiffness and slowed movement.
The condition can also affect sleep, cognition and other functions.
Levodopa remains a central treatment because the brain converts it into dopamine. However, as the disease progresses, its effects can become less consistent.
Patients may alternate between “on” periods of better movement control and “off” periods when symptoms return. More frequent doses can help, but managing the medication schedule can become burdensome.
Huang, chair of the University of Virginia’s Department of Neurology, said: “Patients’ lives become bound by their medication.”
The once-daily approach could ease that burden, although its impact on individual medication schedules will depend on whether other treatments are needed.
Unlike levodopa, tavapadon directly stimulates dopamine receptors rather than being converted into dopamine.
It is a selective partial agonist targeting D1 and D5 receptors, meaning it activates them without producing their maximum possible response.
Most established dopamine agonists primarily target D2 and D3 receptors, giving tavapadon a different mechanism of action.
The approval is supported by evidence from four clinical studies: TEMPO-1, TEMPO-2, TEMPO-3 and TEMPO-4.
These trials examined movement symptom control in people with early-stage Parkinson’s and those experiencing fluctuations while taking levodopa.
The research behind the treatment dates back several decades.
Mailman, professor of pharmacology and neuroscience at the University of Virginia, initially investigated movement problems associated with antipsychotic medications that block D2 dopamine receptors.
He explored whether blocking D1 receptors might avoid those problems, but animal experiments unexpectedly showed pronounced movement impairment when D1 receptors were blocked.
This suggested that activating D1 receptors could have therapeutic benefits.
By 1984, Mailman was investigating this approach and collaborating on compounds designed to target the pathway.
Juvmo offers another option for managing Parkinson’s movement symptoms, but it has not been shown to prevent nerve cell loss or slow disease progression.
Its approval also does not establish that it is more effective than levodopa or other existing treatments.
