AbbVie wins FDA nod for a long-acting Parkinson's treatment

AbbVie ($ABBV) picked up FDA approval for Duopa, an extended-release combination of two standard Parkinson's disease treatments that relies on an external pump. The treatment, approved to treat motor fluctuations for people with advanced Parkinson's, pumps a mixture of carbidopa and levodopa through tube placed in patients' small intestines. Duopa provides 16 hours of relief from symptoms, AbbVie said, and, in Phase III trials, it demonstrated significantly better coverage than immediate-release combinations of carbidopa and levodopa. Meanwhile, Israel's NeuroDerm ($NDRM), at work on a drug-device combo that promises to administer the two agents subcutaneously, watched its shares double last month on promising results from a small study. More