The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase IIa clinical trial to test the safety and tolerability of nilotinib (Tasigna) in Parkinson's disease (PD). The trial will investigate the potential of repurposing nilotinib, an FDA-approved treatment for cancer of the white blood cells, in Parkinson's disease (PD). Select centers across the U.S. expect to begin trial recruitment in September 2017.

Drug repurposing, or repositioning, is a promising and relatively efficient way to seed the drug development pipeline by taking a medication that is FDA-approved for one condition and using it to treat another. Even though they are available and have been tested in healthy human volunteers, repurposed drugs have to undergo additional clinical testing to evaluate safety, tolerability and efficacy specifically in people with Parkinson's. Read more about repurposed therapies in our Foundation's guide.

Register on Fox Trial Finder to be notified if you're a match for this study when enrollment opens this fall (or for others currently in need of research volunteers).

Read the nilotinib trial press release for full details.