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April 19, 2026Journal of Parkinson s Disease0 citationsOpen Access

Long-term follow up of opicapone as add-on to levodopa in Parkinson's patients without motor fluctuations

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JFJ T FerreiraOROlivier RascolFSFabrizio Stocchi

Key Points

  • To evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of opicapone as an add-on to levodopa in Parkinson's patients without motor fluctuations.
  • Conducted a 24-week double-blind study followed by a 1-year open-label treatment for eligible participants.
  • Compared motor impairment outcomes in patients receiving opicapone versus placebo during the double-blind phase.
  • Utilized the MDS-UPDRS motor score to assess symptomatic efficacy over the study duration.
  • Adding opicapone significantly improved motor impairment without increasing motor complications compared to placebo.
  • After 1 year, motor scores improved by −7.4 from baseline in the opicapone group, while those switching from placebo saw a −6.1 improvement.
  • 80.2% of opicapone-treated participants remained free of motor complications at Week 76, compared to 69.7% in the placebo group.

Abstract

Primary results from the 24-week EPSILON study (NCT04978597) showed that adding opicapone to levodopa in non-fluctuating Parkinson's patients significantly improved motor impairment without increasing the development of motor complications versus placebo. All participants finishing the double-blind phase became eligible for open-label treatment with opicapone. Symptomatic efficacy of opicapone was maintained with 1-year open-label treatment (adjusted-mean ± SE change in MDS-UPDRS motor score from double-blind baseline to Week 76: −7.4 ± 0.81); participants who switched from placebo to opicapone had a motor improvement of −6.1 ± 0.79. At Week 76, 80.2% of opicapone-opicapone-treated participants remained motor complication-free versus 69.7% in the placebo-opicapone group (p = 0.1).

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Cite This Study

Ferreira et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69e4745f010ef96374d90123https://doi.org/10.1177/1877718x261436957
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Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

  1. 1Real-world data of opicapone in patients with Parkinson’s disease experiencing motor fluctuations: the OPTIMO study2026
  2. 2Opicapone in Parkinson’s disease: a real-world, multicenter, retrospective study to identify patient characteristics for sustained treatment benefit2025
  3. 3Low Risk of Motor Complications in Early Parkinson’s Disease Patients Treated with Opicapone in the EPSILON Study: Effect of Levodopa Dose (P3-17.010)2026
  4. 4Opicapone for the treatment of early wearing-off in levodopa-treated Parkinson’s disease: pooled analysis of patient level data from two randomized open-label studies2024 · 2 citations
  5. 5Incidence of Adverse and Safety Events in Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease Treated with Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Inhibitor Opicapone as an Add-On to Levodopa Treatment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis2025