Parkinson’s Disease Gets New Treatment Approved

Oct 2, 2026

— FDA gives go-ahead to D1/D5 dopamine agonist tavapadon

by Judy George, Deputy Managing Editor, MedPage Today

September 28, 2026 

The FDA approved the dopamine agonist tavapadon (Juvmo) to treat adults with Parkinson's disease, drugmaker AbbVie announced Monday.

Tavapadon is an oral selective D1/D5 dopamine agonist that was studied as monotherapy for early Parkinson's in the TEMPO-1 and TEMPO-2 trials, and as adjunctive therapy with oral levodopa in advanced Parkinson's patients who had motor fluctuations in the TEMPO-3 trial.

Dopamine agonists are used to help manage symptoms and reduce reliance on oral levodopa escalation. Tavapadon is the first D1/D5 receptor agonist approved for Parkinson's; other available dopamine agonists primarily target D2/D3 receptors.

"Parkinson's disease treatment has long required healthcare providers to balance the need for dependable motor symptom control with considerations around treatment tolerability," said principal TEMPO trial investigator Hubert Fernandez, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, in a news release.

"Now we have a novel therapy that selectively targets D1/D5 receptors, which addresses a longstanding need for innovation and provides healthcare providers with greater flexibility to tailor treatment to individual patient needs," he added.

In the TEMPO-1 (fixed dose) and TEMPO-2 (flexible dose) studies, participants receiving tavapadon as monotherapy had a significant reduction in Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) part II and III combined scores at week 26 compared with placebo. MDS-UPDRS parts II and III scores reflect activities of daily living and motor performance.

In TEMPO-3, tavapadon adjunctive to levodopa significantly increased daily "on" time without troublesome dyskinesia at 27 weeks compared with placebo. Sustained efficacy to 85 weeks was seen for patients who continued in the open-label TEMPO-4 extension, AbbVie said.

Could the Gut Hold the Earliest Hints of Parkinson’s?

Oct 1, 2026

By Simon Spichak, MSc Published On: September 14, 2026

Scientists are studying whether changes in gut bacteria and nerves might be the earliest signs of Parkinson’s.

Since constipation and other gastrointestinal symptoms may precede Parkinson’s by decades, researchers began to suspect that some cases of the disease originate in the gut.  

Dr. Per Borghammer of Aarhus University Hospital pioneered the brain-first and body-first models of Parkinson’s, which aim to explain why some people develop different symptoms first. In the brain-first model, the disease starts in the brain’s smell center or its emotional hub and then spreads through to the regions that control motor movement. Others may experience a body-first form of the disease, where the first changes occur in the gut and then spread upward. 

The body-first explanation is supported by research from Swedish and Danish health records. Individuals who received a surgery to cut part of the vagus nerve, one pathway through which scientists believe the disease may spread from gut nerves to the brain, had a slightly lower Parkinson’s risk. 

Researchers are looking at gut bacteria and misfolded proteins called alpha-synuclein in the gut to untangle the relationship. While an exciting avenue of inquiry and promising data in animal models, these ideas still need confirmation in humans.

“If you just look at the evolution of the clinical symptoms of a patient, it fits pretty nicely,” with the idea that Parkinson’s may start in the gut for some individuals, Dr. Todd Levine, neurologist and chief medical officer of CND Life Sciences, told Being Patient. CND Life Sciences developed a skin-punch biopsy test which is used to measure misfolded proteins linked to Parkinson’s and other diseases. 

Researchers hope that understanding these links may eventually lead to less invasive strategies to detect who’s at risk for the disease.