Sinemet is in many ways a wonder drug. Its origins go back to 1967, when a Harvard-trained physician named George Cotzias found that administration of the chemical L-dopa in carefully timed doses relieved most Parkinson symptoms. L-dopa, or levodopa, crosses the blood-brain barrier and is converted into dopamine, the neurotransmitter whose curtailed production is a signature feature of Parkinson’s. Over the next decade, a series of hybrid drugs that combined L-dopa with a targeted delivery agent hit the market. One of these was Sinemet.
