Largest-ever Parkinson’s disease clinical trial opens
October 16, 2025
LONDON (Oct. 16, 2025) — The world’s largest-ever clinical trial of treatments to slow or stop the progression of Parkinson’s disease has launched, led by researchers at University College London and Newcastle University.
The £26 million ($34.8 million USD) project is accelerating the search for effective treatments with an innovative, flexible trial design testing multiple treatments in parallel. By evaluating more drugs more efficiently than ever before, the trial could take up to three years off the time needed to test a drug candidate.
The trial team is recruiting up to 1,600 participants in its first phase from more than 40 hospitals across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The trial is now underway, as participants are already being recruited at the London (University College London Hospital) and Newcastle (Clinical Aging Research Unit) sites, with the other trial sites getting up and running between now and April 2026. People with Parkinson’s can register their interest in participating using a simple online form.
Parkinson’s disease is one of the world’s fastest growing neurological conditions, affecting an estimated 1.1 million people in the U.S. and 166,000 people in the U.K. Although current treatments can help with symptoms, they become less effective over time. As such, there is an urgent need to find treatments that can slow or stop disease progression.
The Edmond J. Safra Accelerating Clinical Trials in Parkinson’s Disease (EJS ACT-PD) trial is sponsored by University College London and funded by a Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health and Care Research partnership, Cure Parkinson’s, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Parkinson’s UK, The John Black Charitable Foundation, The Gatsby Charitable Foundation and Van Andel Institute.
“Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide, and yet there are no treatments that can slow its relentless progression,” said Co-chief Investigator Thomas Foltynie, Ph.D., M.D., MRCP, of the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and consultant neurologist at UCLH’s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. “We are prioritizing drugs that already show promise as potential treatments, based on an extensive review of prior evidence, as we seek to identify a drug that does more than just provide symptom relief for Parkinson’s. We hope this trial will serve as a blueprint for future trials in Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative conditions.”
“Our innovative trial design will enable us to accelerate the hunt for an effective treatment in a giant step forward for Parkinson’s research, as we will be trialing multiple drugs simultaneously, adapting as we go along based on what we’re learning. It’s a real group effort, and we are particularly grateful to the people with Parkinson’s and care partners who are making invaluable contributions to this research. With their input we have designed a trial that we hope will be available and accessible to people with Parkinson’s across the U.K.” said Co-chief Investigator Camille Carroll, Ph.D., B.M. B.Ch., MRCP, of Newcastle University.
The new EJS ACT-PD trial uses a multi-arm, multi-stage design, enabling several treatments to be tested at the same time, in comparison to a single group of participants taking a placebo, a method that has not been used before for Parkinson’s. Initially, the trial will test two drugs known to be safe and effective at treating other conditions: a blood pressure medication and a drug used to treat an enlarged prostate.
The first participant to be recruited into the trial at UCLH’s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Graham Edwins, commented: “I wanted to be part of EJS ACT-PD because of the pioneering approach to test multiple medications in a single trial. Having Parkinson’s, especially young onset, your choices are denial, acceptance or to fight back, which is what I feel I am doing by taking part. Even if I don’t directly benefit, if I can help progress a potential treatment or cure for the next person diagnosed in their prime then it’s a job well done.”
By analyzing results on an ongoing basis, ineffective treatments can be identified and dropped from the trial, with more promising drugs progressing. The design’s flexibility also allows new treatment arms to be introduced within the same trial infrastructure.
The current standard clinical trials process is hugely time and resource consuming and stop-start in nature, taking up to 10 years for a single potential treatment to complete assessment. Compared to running individual trials for each treatment, the structure of the EJS ACT-PD trial can accelerate the assessment process by close to 25% (or up to three years).
People with Parkinson’s, their partners and care partners, and community representatives have been involved in every aspect of the trial design.
“By accelerating clinical research, this trial means that drugs that slow or stop the progression of Parkinson’s are coming closer for people like me and for generations to come. I feel very fortunate to be contributing to this excellent initiative that will hopefully make a difference to people with Parkinson’s and, of course, to our families,” said Kevin McFarthing, Ph.D., chair of the trial’s patient and public inclusion and engagement working group.
The sheer scale of the trial provides a unique opportunity to embed research studies within the trial. Sub-studies funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation are assessing whether wearable technologies could be used to digitally monitor symptoms, and to search for specific and sensitive molecular signatures of Parkinson’s in samples from participants.
Collaborator and Funder Quotes
Darren Moore, Ph.D., chair of Van Andel Institute’s Department of Neurodegenerative Science and Jay Van Andel Endowed Chair in Parkinson’s Disease Research, said: “The launch of this expansive new trial is a significant moment in our collective pursuit of ways to slow or stop Parkinson’s progression and improve quality of life for people with the disease. We are thrilled to support this vital work and grateful to all who made it a reality. The EJS ACT-PD Trial is truly hope in action.”
Sonia Gandhi, M.D., Ph.D., of UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and The Francis Crick Institute, who is co-leading the EJS ACT-PD trial innovation program said: “This research will tell us which drugs might be effective, but critically why and how a drug may be working, and who may respond to it — it will change the way we monitor Parkinson’s in future trials.”
Professor John Simpson, director of the MRC-NIHR Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation Program, said: “The next stage of this innovative new trial represents a landmark moment in the hunt for new treatments for Parkinson’s disease to help improve the quality of life for patients with this neurodegenerative condition. This world-leading trial allows experts to test multiple treatments simultaneously to speed up the search for new drugs. Collaborating with other research funders is crucial in enabling innovative and ambitious studies like this and demonstrates how research powers the country’s life sciences sector and technical advantage.”
Simon Stott, Ph.D., director of research at Cure Parkinson’s, said: “It is really exciting to see such a large clinical trial platform that will be testing multiple agents at the same time, with the optionality to take out drugs that aren’t working and replace them with alternatives. Rather than the stop-start nature of current trials, this new format will allow for the continuous testing of new therapies that could potentially slow, stop or reverse Parkinson’s.”
David Dexter, Ph.D., director of research at Parkinson’s UK, said: “We’re thrilled to see the launch of this revolutionary trial for Parkinson’s. Designed with people with Parkinson’s and their loved ones at the center, we’ve been proud to invest our time, funding and support in all aspects of this trial’s design and are looking forward to continuing to support it as it moves on to start recruiting participants. As a charity, we are committed to funding promising research, from cause to cure, and getting new treatments for Parkinson’s faster. The launch of EJS ACT-PD is an exciting step forwards towards this goal.”
Helen Matthews, CEO of Cure Parkinson’s, said: “Thanks to this innovative clinical trial program, more people with Parkinson’s than ever before will have the opportunity to participate in disease-modifying research. We’re proud to have played a key role in the collaborative effort, bringing partner funders Van Andel Institute, The Gatsby Charitable Foundation, The John Black Charitable Foundation, and our own donors together to realize this project. The research program has attracted over £13 million ($17.4 million USD) in overseas investment into the U.K. medical research environment. The start of recruitment to the EJS ACT-PD trial is an enormous achievement for everyone involved and offers real hope to people living with Parkinson’s and their families.”
Max Coslov, director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation, said: “Over the past four years, the Edmond J. Safra Foundation has been privileged to support the development of the Edmond J. Safra ACT-PD Initiative, culminating in today’s historic trial launch. The dedication of the researchers, patient participants, administrators, and partner funders involved in this initiative offers hope to countless patients and families worldwide. We commend their achievement and extend our best wishes for the continued success of this groundbreaking endeavor.”