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RecruitingNCT04388969Updated Apr 29, 2026

World Data on Ambroxol for Patients With GD and GBA Related PD

An observational study in Gaucher Disease, Parkinson Disease and GBA Gene Mutation, sponsored by Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Recruiting at 3 sites in Israel. Open to participants aged Up to 100 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-04-29.

Sponsored by Shaare Zedek Medical Center · Observational

From the registry’s dates

  • Started May 2020; still recruiting 6 years 6 months later.
Study type
Observational
Model
Cohort
Time perspective
Retrospective
Enrollment
300
Ages
Up to 100 Years
Sex
All
01

Where this study stands

Counted across the records on this site · 2026-11-12

Among 33 studies in Gaucher Disease with a site in Israel — 4 open to participants now, 5 under way, 1 of them phase 3. Gaucher Disease · Israel.

Started
2020
with 2 others
Observational
8 of 33
3 open now
Registered
28th of 33
by date
Lead sponsor
5 of 33
Shaare Zedek Medical Center

Among the 33 studies in Gaucher Disease with a site in Israel, this one is one of 3 that started in 2020, is one of 8 observational ones, and was the 28th registered.

By phase

33 studies; the count open now beside each. This study's row is marked.

Phase 39 · 1 open
Observationalthis study8 · 3 open
Phase 26 · 0 open
Phase 43 · 0 open
Phase 12 · 0 open
Phase 1/22 · 0 open
No phase1 · 0 open
Other kind1 · 0 open
Phase 2/31 · 0 open

By the year they started

First in 1991; this study’s year is marked. 3 started in 2020.

Size and results

Median enrollment 29 across the 24 interventional studies, 190 across the 8 observational. Of the 25 that completed or were terminated, 16 (64%) have results posted.

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Watch this landscapeDownload CSVWith an account: a weekly mail of what changed among 33 studies in Gaucher Disease with a site in Israel, or all of them as a file.
02

Study summary

Ambroxol hydrochloride is an oral mucolytic drug available over-the-counter for many years as cough medicine. In 2009 it was found to also act as a pharmacological chaperone (PC) for mutant glucocerebrosidase, albeit in a several-fold higher dose. Unfortunately, due to its low cost, there have been no pharma-driven clinical trials to establish the use of ambroxol. Thus, data are needed on the safety and efficacy of ambroxol for patients with Gaucher disease (GD).

Read the detailed description

The three decades of success of enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) for patients with type 1 Gaucher disease (GD1) have been just a partial success to those patients with the more severe neuronopathic forms, particularly the children with myoclonic epilepsy or the infants with type 2 GD.

Ambroxol hydrochloride is an oral mucolytic drug, available over-the-counter (OTC) for many years as cough medicine. In 2009 it was found (in-vitro) to also act as a pharmacological chaperone (PC) for mutant glucocerebrosidase (GCase), albeit in a several-fold higher dose . Unfortunately, due to its low cost, there have been no pharma-driven clinical trials to establish the use of ambroxol.

In an attempt to provide the proof of concept to the potential use of Ambroxol as PC for patients with GD, the Gaucher Clinic at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel, has treated 12 adult patients with GD1, all untreated with any specific treatment for GD [whether ERT or substrate reduction therapy (SRT),] with Ambroxol at the OTC dose of 150mg/day for a period of 6 months; this was not a formal clinical trial, but rather an audit of a series of patients receiving this drug via the employment of the Israeli Ministry of Health Form 29c to prescribe it for an off-label indication. A single patient, the thinnest of the group with a BMI of 17.1, achieved a robust response relative to baseline similar to ERT.

In 2016, a group from Japan has demonstrated impressive neurological response using high-dose Ambroxol (a marked decrease in seizure frequency, improvement of myoclonus, ability to walk for a bedridden patient, improvement in the latency of I-V waves and threshold of ABR) with dramatic change in daily activities and quality of life (QOL). These encouraging results, that were confirmed in a larger series, yet unpublished, have further led to the conduction of an investigator-initiated-research (IIR) clinical trial in London by Prof A Schapira, which has recently been published (January 13, 2020 JAMA Neurology), wherein newly diagnosed Parkinson patients received high dose Ambroxol, with good safety results

03

Conditions studied

  • Gaucher Disease
  • Parkinson Disease
  • GBA Gene Mutation

Keywords

  • Ambroxol
  • Gaucher Disease
  • GBA carriers with Parkinson disease
04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
Up to 100 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

Patients with Gaucher disease type 1,2,3 (a,b,c) and patients with GBA-related Parkinson disease.

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • patients with Gaucher disease type 1,2 or 3(a,b,c).
  • patients with GBA-related Parkinson disease.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • None.
05

Study design

Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Retrospective
Enrollment
300 participants (estimated)
Patient registry
No

Groups and cohorts

  • Gaucher disease patients

    Patients with type 1,2,3 Gaucher disease.

  • GBA carriers with Parkinson disease

    Patients with Parkinson disease GBA related (carriers)

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Establishing a registry to be used as a reference for patients,parents and physicians, who consider using Ambroxol

    With no specific treatment to offer for patients (particularly children and young adults) with nGD, and with all the above-mentioned encouraging preliminary reports, in our current era of rapidly spreading information (in many meetings worldwide, in the internet and via the social media) individual patients in many countries have started to receive off-label Ambroxol by their treating physicians and a few case reports have been published from Korea , Israel and Canada . In order to upscale the level of evidence from anecdotal reports to an observational study, we herein suggest to establish a specific IIR, wherein the "R" stands for a "Registry", that may be used as a reference for patients , parents and physicians, who consider using Ambroxol.

    Time frame: 10 years

  2. Safety Outcome

    By reporting adverse events

    Time frame: 10 years

07

Study locations

3 of 3 sites recruiting
08

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Started May 2020 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Oct 2030, 125 months after the start.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
May 10, 2020
First posted
May 15, 2020
StartActual
May 6, 2020
Primary completionEst.
Oct 31, 2030
CompletionEst.
Nov 30, 2030
Last update
Apr 29, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Apr 29, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04388969
Responsible party
Ari Zimran (Principal Investigator, Shaare Zedek Medical Center) — Principal investigator
First posted
May 15, 2020
Start date
May 6, 2020
Primary completion
Oct 31, 2030 (estimated)
Completion
Nov 30, 2030 (estimated)
Last update
Apr 29, 2026

Study contacts

Majdolen Istaiti, BS.C
Contact
joleenist@szmc.org.il
+972-2-5645681
Ari Zimran, MD
Contact
azimran@gmail.com
+972-2-5645681
Ari Zimran, MD
principal investigator · Shaare Zedek Medical Center

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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