EJS ACT-PD platform trial

The research record

This is the project's file for this landmark, as written and checked. Sources are listed at the end; anything not yet confirmed is marked "Not yet verified".

Who

Edmond J. Safra Accelerating Clinical Trials for Parkinson's Disease (EJS ACT-PD), led by University College London. Co-chief investigators are Tom Foltynie (UCL) and Camille Carroll (Newcastle). Funders are an MRC and NIHR partnership, Cure Parkinson's, The Michael J. Fox Foundation (landmark 77), Parkinson's UK, the John Black Charitable Foundation, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and Van Andel Institute.

What happened

The trial launched on 16 October 2025. It is a "multi-arm, multi-stage" design: several treatments run in parallel against one placebo group, ineffective ones stop after interim analyses and new ones can be added. The first phase plans 1,600 people (Cure Parkinson's; the registry says 1,200) at more than 40 UK hospitals, with visits every six months for up to three years, virtual visits and home-delivered medication.

The first two drugs are telmisartan (a blood-pressure drug) and terazosin (used for prostate enlargement); ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA, a liver drug) was due to join in 2026. All were repurposed and prioritised by the International Linked Clinical Trials (iLCT) committee. Sub-studies aim to improve symptom monitoring and find better biological progression markers.

• Registry (checked 20 Oct 2026). The trial is NCT07207057 (also ISRCTN17799294), sponsored by UCL: Phase 3, multi-arm multi-stage, quadruple-masked, with telmisartan 40 mg a day or terazosin 5 mg a day against placebo for 36 months, 1,200 people planned. The primary outcome is the rate of progression on the MDS-UPDRS Parts I and II combined, compared between each drug and placebo. Start date is 12 September 2025; primary completion is estimated for May 2031.
• Funder report (source sweep, Oct 2026). Cure Parkinson's reports that it is the largest not-for-profit funder of this trial, and that this commitment drove its £8.4 million of new research commitments in the year to March 2025 (up more than £5 million on the year before). It also signed a partnership with France Parkinson to coordinate an international consortium for multi-arm, multi-stage trials.

Why it moved us toward a cure

Terazosin, one of its first drugs, came from the PGK1 and glycolysis work (landmark 208). Past single-drug trials took years each and mostly failed (landmark 26; landmark 20). A shared control arm and early stopping should test more candidates faster. The team estimates the design can cut up to three years from the assessment timeline.

A 13-person randomised terazosin pilot had shown signs of target engagement (landmark 248).

Outcome

Open. It is recruiting, with no efficacy results. Whether the platform finds a disease-slowing drug is the open question; the drugs' evidence is not described in the sources I could read.

Sources

• ClinicalTrials.gov NCT07207057
• UCL news, 16 Oct 2025 (page blocked on 20 Oct 2026; the launch date and cited figures were taken from the earlier check and Cure Parkinson's page)
• Cure Parkinson's announcement
• Cure Parkinson's Impact Report 2025 (1 Apr 2024 to 31 Mar 2025)
• Not yet verified: whether UDCA has joined in 2026 (no 2026 source found); number recruited to date; why the registry and funder participant numbers differ; the evidence for each drug.