UCLH recruits the first patient in £26 million Parkinson’s disease trial
16 October 2025
Publish date: 16 October 2025
The £26 million project led by researchers at UCL and Newcastle University, is accelerating the search for effective treatments with an innovative, flexible trial design testing multiple treatments in parallel. By testing 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 at UCLH with the other sites entering between now and next April. 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, with 166,000 people affected in the UK today. Parkinson’s gets progressively worse and although there are treatments that can help with symptoms, these become less effective over time, so there is an urgent need to find treatments that can slow or stop the disease progression.
The Edmond J Safra Accelerating Clinical Trials in Parkinson’s Disease (EJS ACT-PD) trial is sponsored by UCL and funded by a Medical Research Council (MRC) and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) partnership, Cure Parkinson’s, The Michael J Fox Foundation, Parkinson’s UK, The John Black Charitable Foundation, The Gatsby Charitable Foundation and Van Andel Institute.
Co-chief investigator Professor Thomas Foltynie, consultant neurologist at UCLH’s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN). (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) said: “Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide, and yet there are no treatments that can slow its relentless progression. We are prioritising 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 trial’s wide UK coverage ends the postcode lottery for clinical research, so that underserved populations with Parkinson’s can participate in this highly inclusive trial.”
Co-chief investigator Professor Camille Carroll (Newcastle University) said: “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 trialling multiple drugs simultaneously, adapting as we go along based on what we’re learning.
Initially, the trial will be testing 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 analysing results on an ongoing basis, ineffective treatments can be identified and dropped from the trial, with more promising drugs progressing, while new treatment arms can be introduced within the same trial infrastructure.
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 carers, and community representatives have been involved in every aspect of the trial design.
Prospective participants can register their interest at http://
Participants are already being recruited at the Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neuroscience Centre, UCL, supported by the NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Centre, and at the Clinical Ageing Research Unit in Newcastle.
The trial aims to recruit a participant population that is representative of people with Parkinson’s in the UK. The trial will recruit people with Parkinson’s who were diagnosed aged 30 or older, are taking dopaminergic treatment, and who have not had deep brain stimulation surgery nor infusion treatments.
