Contrasting to the previous piece, Eli Lilly and Medtronic are collaborating on a new drug and companion device to deliver it aimed at getting around the blood-brain barrier.  Lilly’s drug is a modified form of glial cell derived neurotropic factor. Medtronic’s device is an implantable pump and catheter to the brain that could deliver the medicine, presumably, to the midbrain, where the loss of dopamine-producing cells causes Parkinson’s disease. Unfortunately for the 7 to 10 million PD’s sufferers around the world at present, the implantable device strategy is not yet close to starting human trials.    MORE