zelapar (selegiline HCl) Orally Disintegrating Tablets
About Zelapar
For Healthcare Professionals

What is Zelapar?

Zelapar® (selegiline HCl) gives Parkinson’s disease patients more active hours.

Zelapar is a special once-daily formulation of the drug selegiline that adds more active hours to the lives of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Doctors may recommend adding once-daily Zelapar to patients’ current levodopa/carbidopa medication if they are having a reduced response to this therapy.

Studies have shown that adding Zelapar reduces OFF time by about 2 hours per day.

An additional therapy to be used with levodopa/carbidopa treatment.

Most people with Parkinson’s disease take a medication called levodopa, often in combination with carbidopa. While levodopa/carbidopa is an effective medication for the treatment of PD, symptoms can return between doses. Increasing the dosage or increasing the frequency of levodopa/carbidopa to ward off the return of symptoms results in side effects doctors and patients usually find unacceptable. once-daily Zelapar offers another way to reduce patients OFF time by 2.2 hours per day on average.

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Important Safety Information

Zelapar® is a special once-daily formulation of the drug selegiline that adds more active hours for patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Doctors may recommend adding Zelapar to levodopa/carbidopa treatment when patients are experiencing a reduced response to this therapy.

Do not take Zelapar if you are allergic to selegiline or any of the other ingredients in Zelapar. Zelapar should not be taken with certain medications. Discuss any medicine you are taking with your doctor. Zelapar should not be taken with meperedine (DEMEROL®) or other opiods. Rare cases of high blood pressure have been associated with taking conventional forms of selegiline with foods containing tyramine. Zelapar may cause you to have low blood pressure when you stand (this is more common in older patients than in younger ones). If you are pregnant, you must speak to your doctor about whether to take Zelapar. (Zelapar should be used during pregnancy only if the potential benefit to the mother justifies the potential risk to the fetus.) Do not take more than 2 tablets (2.5 mg) a day.

Zelapar was very well tolerated in clinical trials. The most commonly reported side effects were dizziness, nausea, pain, headache, trouble sleeping, runny nose, involuntary movements, back pain, skin disorders, mouth inflammation, and upper stomach pain. In addition, 5.2% of patients discontinued Zelapar therapy due to side effects (vs. 1% with placebo).

You may need your levodopa dose reduced after starting Zelapar therapy. Be sure to speak with your doctor if you experience any side effects.

Please see accompanying complete prescribing information.

Demerol® is a registered trademark of the Sanofi-Aventis Group. Prozac® is a registered trademark of Eli Lilly and Company.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals