Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
LRRK2-targeted Parkinson disease drug advances into phase III
Biogen and Denali’s pivotal trial of a first-in-class LRRK2 kinase inhibitor is a long-awaited test of a target that could provide a path to disease-modifying therapies for Parkinson disease.
LRRK2 has been on drug developers’ radars for almost 20 years, ever since genetic studies showed that it is one of the most commonly mutated proteins in Parkinson disease (PD). Now, two firms are at last testing the hypothesis that LRRK2 inhibition in patients could slow or halt this devastating neurodegenerative disease. In October, Biogen and partner Denali Therapeutics began a phase III trial of their oral, small-molecule LRRK2 kinase inhibitor BIIB122 (formerly DNL151) in patients with LRRK2-mutated PD.