We share a responsibility to participate in clinical trials

Finding a cure for Parkinson's is directly related to recruiting and retaining enough people with Parkinson’s (PWP) to participate in clinical trials. Currently, fewer than 1% do -- woefully short of the number that researchers anticipate will be needed over the next two to three years.

Difficulty recruiting and retaining enough participants to test the safety and effectiveness of new treatments is a major obstacle to finding a cure for Parkinson’s. Our nation’s top scientists are sitting in state-of-the-art labs with a myriad of promising research ideas and the funding to test them, but too few PWP to get clinical trials underway. The repercussions of this crisis will negatively impact our children and grandchildren long after we are gone.

If you are a “newbie,” diagnosed within the last five years and have not yet taken any Parkinson’s medications, you are likely eligible for more trials than you ever will be again. Make the most of this window of opportunity. Often these early trials hold the greatest promise for finding treatments that slow disease progression or are neuroprotective.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America estimates that ONLY five of 5,000 compounds tested on animals make it to human trials—and ONLY one in five of those may reach the market.

Moving new treatments through the drug pipeline -- from the laboratory to the marketplace -- takes about 8-1/2 years, time we do not have to waste. Increasing clinical trial participation by only two or three percent could significantly reduce the time required for completion of a study, potentially making more effective treatments or even a cure available sooner.

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Jean and the study doctor for the POSTCEPT trial

If you are waiting for someone to knock on your door and hand you the cure, I assure you that it won’t happen. We will get a cure only when each of us assumes our responsibility and steps up to the plate and participates in clinical trials. No one else can do this for us.

Jean and I have both participated in clinical trials, which you can read about on succeeding pages. We’re not asking you to do anything we haven’t done. We’re simply asking you to do your part. Like it or not we, and each of our families, are in this together. We sink or swim as one.

If you are among the 99% of people with Parkinson’s (PWP) who have NOT participated in a clinical trial, ask yourself, in the words of the ancient scholar Hilell, “If not you, then who? If not now, then when?”