Objective: To characterize current trends in Parkinson’s disease (PD) clinical development by analyzing global interventional trials from the past decade, focusing on trial phase distribution, therapeutic modalities, geographic activity, molecular targets, and endpoint use to inform future study design and strategic planning.

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) development continues to expand globally across therapeutic modalities, mechanisms, and trial phases. Characterizing recent trends is essential for informing strategic planning, endpoint selection, and site deployment.

Method: Data for interventional PD trials recorded in the last 10 years were extracted from Citeline |Trialtrove and filtered to include only patient-enrolling studies. Trials were categorized by phase, sponsor type, therapeutic modality, rolled-up geographic region, primary drug targets, and endpoint families. Descriptive statistics were generated programmatically from the curated dataset. Microsoft M365 Copilot was used for text editing, data harmonization, and formatting of figures and tables. The Phase I adjustment excluded only studies enrolling healthy volunteers exclusively, trials including any PD cohort were retained.

Results: A total of 474 patient-enrolling PD trials met criteria. Development remained concentrated in early and mid-stage programs: Phase II accounted for 44.9%, Phase I for 25.5%, Phase III for 15.8%, Phase I/II for 9.5%, and Phase II/III for 4.2%. (Fig 1) Global activity was distributed across the Americas (228 trials), Europe (92), and Asia-Pacific (143), with 11 in other regions. (Fig 2) Small molecules predominated (78.5%), followed by cell therapy (9.1%), biologic/antibody programs (7.8%), gene therapy (4.0%), and device or reformulation approaches (<1%). (Fig 3) Across all endpoint fields, UPDRS/MDS-UPDRS was most frequently used (319 trials), followed by PDQ-39 (109) and EQ-5D (34). As primary endpoints, these appeared in 143, 5, and 1 trials, respectively. (Fig 4)

Conclusion: The PD pipeline remains globally distributed and modality-diverse. Small-molecule programs continue to drive development, complemented by expanding cell and gene therapy initiatives targeting dopaminergic pathways, AADC, and α-synuclein biology. Endpoint use remains anchored in MDS-UPDRS with broad adoption of patient-reported outcomes, supporting scale-anchored and biomarker-aware approaches for future PD studies.

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References: DelveInsight. (2025, March 20). Parkinson’s Disease Pipeline Insight, 2025: FDA updates, therapy innovations, and clinical trial landscape analysis. ABNewswire. https://www.abnewswire.com
GlobalData. (2026, January). Parkinson’s Disease – Global Clinical Trials Review, 2026. Research and Markets.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. (2024). Parkinson’s Priority Therapeutic Clinical Pipeline Report (Q1 2024). Zenodo.
Cure Parkinson’s; Michael J. Fox Foundation. (2024, July 22). Parkinson’s Drug Therapies in the Clinical Trial Pipeline: 2024 Update. Journal of Parkinson’s Disease / Cure Parkinson’s.
American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA). (2025, May 14). New Parkinson’s Disease Treatments in the Clinical Trial Pipeline.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/global-momentum-in-parkinsons-disease-therapeutics-ten-year-trends-in-mechanisms-modalities-and-clinical-endpoints/