In the late 1960s, scientists discovered a miracle drug for Parkinson’s disease — a simple, inexpensive dopamine-replacement pill called levodopa. It transformed the lives of millions of people. People who could barely rise from a chair could stand, walk, and work again.
The late Robin Williams famously brought the drug’s promise into public view in the 1990 movie “Awakenings.” For more than half a century, levodopa has been the gold standard for treating Parkinson’s disease, and the treatment is taught to medical students worldwide. Yet in 2025, most of the world’s 11.8 million people with Parkinson’s cannot reliably get it.
