L-dopa pump for treating Parkinson's Disease

Update: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved this infusion-based treatment for Parkinson's use, foscarbidopa/foslevodopa (Vyalev) in October 2024. This is the one @jatonlouise mentioned.

- FDA Approves New Infusion-based Treatment for Parkinson’s https://www.michaeljfox.org/news/fda-approves-new-infusion-based-treatment-parkinsons

jatonlouise - how has this treatment been working for you since you posted about it a year ago?

I checked on this for my sister and was told it is over 10,000 to get it. Could not afford that

I have now had my little buddy for 20 months. I had had ZERO spontaneoud OFF periods. I have had aabout 4 or 5 self- inflicted OFF periods: Forgot to turn it back on after a bath; forgot to turn it back on after I changed the battery; tried to change the rate while I was half adleep, in the dark without my glasses and onitted s singke strp on thst procedure, which turned it off instead. Sometimes I forget I've got PD, and do something stupid, like forget to tak an LT before I go out to dinner. BUT with my pump I have the option to: (1,) Turn itup on Hi until I
get caught up (2) take a little booster from my pump. So i have all these different ways to recover when I'm out and about. If they ever try to take it away from me, thet'll havr to pry iit from my cold dead hands. Alas, I'm still 80 years old so i have limitation or two.;-) The ABBvie people are fantastic. I mret with them from time to time when tge cone to fo follow up and they are eager to knoe if there is dome additional feeature i would want. I have dealt with the helo desk alot. Not because i'm having a oroblem, but just when ihave a question about hiw something works. The akways respond within 24 hours. Look uo their eebsite and go t the place where they talk about whatvtheitnppurposevis. It made me wish I could work . there! These folks know what they're doing. Some times it's a tad frustrating just having to accommodate the pump's cycle - like if we go out to dinner with other folks, wr have to be home at 6 or so to make sure we can feed my pump ( so We may have tpo go out later than we'd lije, or if we go out fir a late lunch , we might have to come hone sooner than we'd like. But it is still easier than dealing with pills, which I was tsking 8 times a day, and you have to fast for 2 hours before and one hour after. Still worth all the trouble! 😉

It us very expensive. I'm an A
Merican bmbut I live in Germany. The mrds aline are About $6000 a month.My German health insurance pays 100% and 100% of everything, with a few exceptions. ABBvie does have a program to help cover costs. Check their website and see what they offer. In Germany, the insurance company will work with the pharmacy where I take the prescription to the pharmacy. They give me my meds abd send the bill directly to the insurance and the insurance co. pays the pharmacy for the meds. No fuss, no muss. The hospital sends bills directly to insurance. USA makes things i hope so much harder than it needs to be. I hope Abbvie can make a difference for you.

October 17, 2024, the FDA in the US approve the ABBvie pump. Those who have contacted ABBvie direcrtly have been told to go through their neurologist to find out if this treatment is appropriate for you.

Go to the ABBvie website. There is a page where they explain how they may br abe to help covervtge costs. I'm lucky to live in Germany where my insurance covers it. Meds for my pump alone costs 6000€ a month. I don't know what's required to get help. I kbow some companies in the US help with the sky'-high costs by treating these patientsa patients as part of their post- rollout testing followup research, but I don't knoe hiw those programs work, either.

ABBvie has a patient assistance program. You can call in the US: 844-663-3742.
And since I can't post URLs in my comments but you cand go to google and type in this "ABBvie patient assistance" ( But without tge qùotation marks) and BOOM! That shoud get you there. Keeping my fingers crossed for you!