If you’re living with Parkinson’s — or love someone who is — a treatment that could slow symptoms or prevent them from occurring offers real hope. These treatments, known as “disease-modifying therapies,” target the biological processes that cause symptoms to occur at all.
Successful disease-modifying therapies would change how we treat Parkinson’s. Yet while these therapies are closer than ever, they are not here yet. There is much work ahead, including lengthy clinical trials to gather evidence on effectiveness and safety and then approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or its international counterparts. But the momentum is real: Of the more than 170 Parkinson’s therapies that are currently in or nearing human trials, more than half are disease-modifying. This includes prasinezumab, a treatment in the final stage of clinical testing that targets the toxic proteins that cause Parkinson’s symptoms to worsen over time. If approved by the FDA, it would be the first disease-modifying medication for Parkinson’s.
Disease-modifying therapies hold promise, but they do not cure Parkinson's and may offer less benefit for people in advanced stages. For these reasons, we remain committed to pushing research further so that future treatments reach everyone who needs them and bring us to our ultimate goal: an end to Parkinson’s for all.
Real Voices, Real Hope: Patients on the Promise of New PD Treatments
People with Parkinson’s share their experiences with the disease: the challenging moments, the connections that get them through and the hope they have for disease-modifying therapies.
The Future of Parkinson’s Treatments
Disease-modifying therapies take aim at the mechanisms that cause symptoms to occur in the first place.
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New Drug Moves into Critical Stage of Testing
Prasinezumab has moved into Phase III testing — the final, large study needed before it can be considered for regulatory approval.
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Five Facts About Emerging Therapies
A record number of clinical trials are advancing therapies to slow Parkinson’s progression or to stop symptoms from getting worse.
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Talking Disease-modifying Therapies
In this Third Thursdays Webinar, our panel discusses the latest research.
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Using Exercise to Slow Parkinson’s
Research shows that regular exercise can slow the progression of Parkinson’s.
MJFF’s Role in Advancing New Treatments
Slowing or stopping Parkinson’s has been the core mission of The Michael J. Fox Foundation since our inception, and advances in disease-modifying therapy research can directly be attributed to our investment and strategic vision. We provided early-stage funding for basic and translational research that de-risked these treatments, showing their promise and thus encouraging investment from biotech and pharma industry partners. And our landmark study, the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative, led to the discovery of the alpha-synuclein biomarker, which can detect Parkinson’s in living people for the first time and is making clinical trials for disease-modifying treatments smarter and faster.
Donor-Supported Research Fuels Innovation
MJFF is committed to advancing the most promising therapies through strategies that support an improved treatment pipeline and faster clinical trials.
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Targets to Therapies Initiative
MJFF supports research into understudied proteins and genes that offer promise in the search for new Parkinson's treatments.
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Therapeutics Pipeline Program
Therapies aimed at changing the course of Parkinson’s or providing improved symptom management are a focus of our research support.
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Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative
MJFF’s landmark longitudinal clinical study is moving disease-modifying therapies even closer to reality.
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Fox Trial Finder
Our clinical trial-matching tool helps people with Parkinson’s and other related disorders be part of research into new treatments.