ORION PHARMA, a leading healthcare company in Finland (www.orion.fi) and KUSUM Group of Companies, one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical manufacturers in Ukraine (www.kusum.ua), have launched a joint project to develop Parkinson’s disease treatment technologies. As part of the signed agreement, KUSUM PHARM LLC is launching the production of CONFUNDUS TRIO, made from in bulk tablets containing levodopa, carbidopa and entacapone, manufactured by ORION PHARMA in Finland.
Entacapone, a key component of CONFUNDUS TRIO combination, was invented by ORION in the late 1990s. The launch of Entacapone and then the combined drug Stalevo has qualitatively improved the bioavailability of levodopa1 and qualitatively changed the standard of living of patients with Parkinson’s disease2.
In 2003, the combination of levodopa, carbidopa and entacapone was patented and later registered by ORION in EC3 under the name Stalevo, which became one of the most important and efficient drugs for the treatment of this disease4.
Moving part of the production process from ORION to the plant of the KUSUM Group of Companies, located in Sumy (Ukraine), will reduce the cost of production, which in turn will positively affect the availability of combination therapy containing levodopa for patients with Parkinson’s disease.
ORION and KUSUM jointly promote the product and work related to the development of technologies for the treatment of age-related CNS diseases.
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1 (Gordin et al.2003)
3 Registration in the European Union №EMEA/H/C/000511 dated 17/10/2003
4 Brooks DJ, Leinonen M, Kuoppamaki M, Nissinen H. Five-year efficacy and safety of levodopa/DDCI and entacapone in patients with Parkinson’s disease. J Neural Transm. 2008 Jun;115(6):843-9.
