Researchers are currently recruiting patients for the next phase of the trials as part of a national drive to urgently tackle the condition

Dr Derrick Beech, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s a few years ago, doesn’t experience tremors.

For researchers, it is about “being able to tap into drugs we know are safe, available that we could use and maybe even translate into the clinic quickly,” Lewis said.

The smart trials involve testing a variety of medicines used for other conditions, such as albuterol tablets for asthma and alogliptin to treat type 2 diabetes.

The next phase will test a simple cough medicine ambroxol, and an antibiotic doxycycline.

The medicines target different pathways such as inflammation and a gene called alpha-synuclein implicated in disease.

“So this is the world’s first platform trial, what that means we get to try different drugs in the same trial, the same protocol” Lewis said.

“We have blood biomarkers that can tell us, did that drug actually engage the target, did it reduce inflammation, did it modulate those other pathways we think are important.”

Results from the first stage are likely to be released later this year.

A key feature of these trials is teasing out which patient would benefit most from each treatment