HOUSTON — (November 2, 2010) —
Enrollment has begun in a new double-blind Phase 2b study evaluating CERE-120 in Parkinson’s disease patients. Baylor College of Medicine is one of eight clinical sites enrolling along with 11 major medical centers across the country.
CERE-120 is a gene therapy product that delivers the neurotrophic factor neurturin to degenerating or dying dopamine neurons in the hopes it will restore function and protect brain cells from further damage.
Enhanced CERE-120 dosing regimen
This study follows the Phase 1 portion that demonstrated early safety using an enhanced CERE-120 dosing regimen targeting two brain areas affected by Parkinson’s disease.
The study is enrolling men and women between the ages of 35 and 70 who are diagnosed with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. They must be experiencing motor complications despite adequate antiparkinsonian therapy, as well as being on a stable, optimized regimen of antiparkinsonian medications and stable parkinsonian features for at least 6 weeks prior to screening. They must also be medically fit to undergo the study surgical procedure as determined by clinical and laboratory evaluations.
Study criteria
For more information please call senior research coordinator Alicia Marie Palao at 713-798-3974 or email palao@bcm.edu.
Ceregene, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, is sponsoring the study, which is partially funded by a $2.5M LEAPS (Linked Efforts to Accelerate Parkinson’s Solutions) award from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
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