An open-label extension study to evaluate the safety of ropinirole prolonged release in Chinese patients with advanced Parkinson's disease.

OBJECTIVE

This open-label extension (OLE) study evaluated the safety profile of ropinirole prolonged release (PR) administered for 24 weeks as adjunctive to levodopa in Chinese patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD).

METHODS

This was a 24 week, flexible-dose, OLE study in Chinese patients with advanced PD who received 24 week treatment with ropinirole PR in the preceding double-blind (DB), phase III study (NCT01154166) and had no break in receiving study treatment while switching from the DB study to the OLE study. In the OLE study, patients received ropinirole PR once daily, starting with 2 mg/d and increasing up to 8 mg/d at week 4 (2 mg increment/week); if tolerable, the dose could be further increased in 4 mg increments up to 24 mg/d according to clinical judgment. There were no efficacy assessments. Safety assessments included monitoring adverse events (AEs), neurological examination, Gambling Symptom Assessment Scale questionnaire, liver chemistry, and laboratory tests.

RESULTS

Of the 295 enrolled patients, 282 completed the study. The most common reason for withdrawal was AEs (n = 9, 3.1%). The mean duration to ropinirole PR treatment was 173.1 days and an overall median daily dose of ropinirole was 8 mg (range: 2-24 mg). Overall, 114 (38.6%) patients experienced on-treatment AEs; the most frequent reported AEs ( ≥ 2%) were dyskinesia (6.1%), dizziness (4.1%), nausea (3.4%), hallucinations (3.4%), somnolence (2.7%) and decreased weight (2.4%). Sixty-eight patients (23.1%) experienced treatment-related AEs. Six patients experienced serious AEs (SAEs), of which hallucination was determined to be a treatment-related SAE. There were no other significant safety findings. No new safety signals for ropinirole were identified.

CONCLUSION

The safety profile of ropinirole was consistent with the preceding DB study and also with the established safety profile for ropinirole. Results support the long-term use of ropinirole PR as an adjunctive to levodopa in Chinese patients with advanced PD. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT 1536574.