|
Page 4
Page
1 - 2 -
3 - 5
- 6 -
7 - 8
- 9 -
10 - 11 -
12 - 13
The first
three placebo arms of the Net-PD trial resulted in progression rate and
in total UPDRS change per year, of unmedicated patients, ranging from
5.6 to 7.1. Remember these are supposed to provide a 30 percent
improvement as compared to the placebo. And the placebo?

Looks like
one placebo is not the same as another placebo. This illustrates the
futility of a $60 million trial based on this kind of measurements.
The Holy
Grail would be a biological measurement of progression that is
objective, repeatable and rock solid. We don't have that. Partly we
don't have that because it's complicated. Partly we don’t have that
because in my opinion we don't work hard enough in proportion to the
complication of the task.
We can do
better than comparison to another year's placebo trial. For example,
Parkinson's disease is defined by movement disorder symptoms. You don't
go in there and get a blood test and somebody tells you you have
Parkinson's. You go look at tremor, you look at movements, and using a
pseudo-objective questionnaire. If we measure a movement by
observation, why can’t we measure movement objectively, in this era of
cars that Dr. Morrison doesn’t know how to . .
[Laughter]
. . .
turn on. By the way, the key word is when it doesn’t work, reboot it.
[Laughter]

The device
looks like a little computer, with a microphone so you can test the
voice pressure, it has a keyboard that you use to measure finger
mobility, it has little pads that you can measure movement with. There
was a clinical trial that was recently completed that measured the
characteristics of tremor, limb bradykinesia, limb reaction time and
movement time, fine motor bradykinesia and voice. The trial was
completed. It was a multi-site trial. Excellent adherence. I think
people actually liked using the device. I tried it and I don't
understand why they like it but I also don't understand why people have
spent time watching baseball.
The compliance rate was
excellent, people really stuck with this. And the first look at the data
is pretty promising.
Continued: Page
1 - 2 -
3 - 5
- 6 -
7 - 8
- 9 -
10 - 11 -
12 - 13
|