{"id":736337,"date":"2026-08-13T05:20:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T05:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/736337\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T05:20:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T05:20:53","slug":"new-parkinsons-medication-approved-for-nhs-scotland-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/736337\/","title":{"rendered":"New Parkinson&#8217;s medication approved for NHS Scotland use"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has approved Lecigon for patient use when standard medications usually used to manage the day-to-day effects of the disease are unable to alleviate advanced symptoms.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The drug, which is already available in England and Wales, is administered through a wearable pump that delivers the medication straight to the intestine. Its use was previously rejected in Scotland.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/26451555.scottish-green-msp-q-manivannan-say-rape-spectrum-comments-full\/?ref=ed_latest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">What did Scottish Green MSP Q Manivannan say about rape &#8216;spectrum&#8217;? Comments in full<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Over 14,000 people in Scotland have been diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s, with the disease predominantly affecting those in their 60s and 70s.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  James Jopling, Director at Parkinson\u2019s UK Scotland, said: \u201cMost people with Parkinson\u2019s manage their condition with standard medicines.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;But what works for one person may not be effective for someone else. Having access to the full range of treatments is essential.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;Lecigon will hopefully give healthcare professionals another tool in the box to manage challenging symptoms.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cLife with advanced Parkinson\u2019s can be unbearably hard. With symptoms like uncontrolled movements, sudden \u2018freezing\u2019 and agonising cramps, people can become unable to leave their homes.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;If you can\u2019t predict when your medication will enable you to speak or move, you can\u2019t live your life to the full\u201d.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenational.scot\/news\/26451296.will-shift-polls-mean-nigel-farages-chances-clacton\/?ref=ed_latest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">What will a shift in polls mean for Nigel Farage&#8217;s chances in Clacton?<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Jopling has also raised concerns that the medication won\u2019t be fully accessible to those who need it, saying: \u201cSadly we know from recent experience that SMC approved medicines can remain unavailable to people because of a lack of funding and staff in already overstretched Parkinson\u2019s services.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;The last advanced Parkinson\u2019s medicine was approved in Scotland over two years ago. But there are only a handful accessing it.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  NHS Boards need to resource Parkinson\u2019s teams properly so that they can deliver effective treatments to those that need them\u201d.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Parkinson&#8217;s currently has no cure, but several options are now available through the NHS to try to manage some of its symptoms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has approved Lecigon for patient use when standard medications usually used to manage&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-736337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}