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Orion Pharma has launched a new 175mg dose strength of Stalevo, a form of levodopa, which is viewed as the gold standard treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
Stalevo is now available in seven dose strengths, providing a practical option when relatively small adjustments of dose are required in Parkinson’s disease patients experiencing wearing‐off symptoms.
The doses start with a 50mg strength tablet and increase in 25mg increments up to 200mg, which can be utilised as the condition progresses.
The new Stalevo 175 costs £20.79 for a 30-tablet pack and £69.31 for a 100-tablet pack.
Stalevo has been formulated to help control Parkinson’s symptoms and help make the activities of daily life easier.
Stalevo significantly prolongs the therapeutic response to levodopa and can sustain benefits over time without a significant increase in the levodopa dose.
Parkinson’s disease is treated by giving drugs that make more dopamine available in the brain.
The symptoms of Parkinson’s disease result from reduced activity of dopamine secreting cells in the basal ganglia of the brain.
Without the ‘chemical messenger’ dopamine, people can find that their movements become slower and symptoms of the disease start to appear.
Stalevo contains three active ingredients in one tablet – levodopa, carbidopa and entacapone – and it is the latter two constituents that help to ensure that more levodopa reaches the brain.
Levodopa treatment tends to become less effective over time and patients often experience ‘end-of-dose’ deterioration; where the duration of benefit after each dose of levodopa becomes progressively shorter.
Research has shown that in Parkinson’s patients with wearing off, switching from conventional levodopa treatment to Stalevo can significantly improve activity of their daily living scores.
