Martin & Jones has compiled the latest news on Permax and Dostinex. We hope you will find these resources helpful.

This page is updated frequently, so we encourage you to visit us often for up-to-date news on these drugs.

If you or a loved one has suffered heart problems following use of Permax or Dostinex and you would like to be contacted to discuss your legal rights, please contact us.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced that manufacturers of pergolide drug products, which are used to treat Parkinson’s disease, will voluntarily remove these drugs from the market because of the risk of serious damage to patients’ heart valves.

The products being withdrawn are Permax, the trade name for pergolide marketed by Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and two generic versions of pergolide manufactured by Par and Teva. Pergolide is in a class of medications called dopamine agonists and is used with levodopa and carbidopa to manage the symptoms (tremors and slowness of movement) of Parkinson’s disease.

Two drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease and other disorders can seriously damage heart valves, researchers are reporting.

The drugs are pergolide, sold as Permax, and cabergoline, sold as Dostinex. Permax is approved in the United States and overseas for Parkinson’s. Dostinex is used for Parkinson’s in other countries but is approved in this country only for a hormonal disorder, hyperprolactinemia.

New findings on the drugs are described in two studies being published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Two Parkinson's disease drugs cause the same kind of heart damage that led to the withdrawal of the diet drug combination "fen-phen," according to two studies published on Wednesday.

Patients taking the drugs pergolide, developed by Eli Lilly & Co. and sold under the brand name Permax, and cabergoline, developed by Pfizer Inc. and sold under the brand Dostinex, had a sharply higher risk of heart valve damage than those taking other therapies, the studies said.