A rising star drug in the Parkinson’s disease treatment market defeated the leading medicine and ranked first in sales in the first half of the year, industry data showed Monday.

According to U-BIST, a pharmaceutical market research firm, Lundbeck’s Azilect (ingredient: rasagiline) topped the outpatient prescriptions among Parkinson’s disease treatments in the first half. Azilect sold 4.6 billion won ($4 million) in the first half, up 15.6 percent from 4 billion won a year earlier.

In contrast, Novartis’ Stalevo (ingredient: levodopa, entacapone), which used to dominate the Parkinson’s drug market, suffered a 17.7 percent decline in sales to 3.9 billion won in the first half from 4.7 billion won a year earlier.

Stalevo’s sales ranking slid to third, as Boehringer Ingelheim’s Mirapex sold more than Stalevo. Mirapex (ingredient: pramipexole) sold 3.9 billion won, down 16.8 percent from 4.7 billion won a year earlier.

GSK’s Requip (ingredient: ropinirole) performed fairly well.

Requip PD, which can be taken regardless of meals, sold 1.7 billion won in the first half, up 4.5 percent from 1.6 billion won a year earlier. Requip’s sales inched up 0.3 percent to 1.37 billion won.

Azilect’s taking No. 1 position is attributed to the drug’s improved convenience. While patients have to take Stalevo with food at the same time every day, they can take Azilect once a day regardless of meals.

Azilect is known to have overcome the limitation of the so-called “efficacy reduction effect,” where long-term medications decrease drug efficacy even in increased dosage.

In particular, Azilect benefitted from insurance coverage conditions where early-stage patients were advised to take Azilect only, and patients progressing with symptoms of motor fluctuations, to take Azilect with levodopa.

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