Fresh off of our discussion on clinical trials from Module 4, I received an email notice about the Nilotinib clinical trial.
Nilotinib is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment for cancer of the white blood cells. In a small Phase I trial, nilotinib showed potential benefit in PD. This is an example of "repurposing", whereby a drug originally used to treat one condition, shows promise in treating a second condition. The benefit of repurposing is two-fold. One, the drug has already been proven to be safe through its original testing, and as a result participants in the trial are less likely to encounter safety issues. Secondly, the time to market for a repurposed drug is usually much quicker than usual.
Here is the blog post: Michael J Fox Blog Post
The good news is that the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (my alma mater - Go Blue!) is one of the sites running a clinical trial. Per the Fox Finder link, here is the contact information:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Michigan, United States
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I sent Ms. Stovall an email last week, and she was very prompt with her response. Unfortunately, I was not eligible for the trial due to my DBS surgery. I encourage those who are interested in this clinical trial to contact Ms. Stovall as soon as possible.
