End of Alopecia?

Baricitinib, a drug manufactured by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, known commercially as Olumiant, and used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat Alopecia Areata (AA). This drug is an oral, selective, and reversible inhibitor of Janus kinases (JAK) 1 and 2, which can disrupt the signaling of cytokines involved in the pathogenesis of AA.

Yale University researchers evaluated this drug in 169 centers in 10 countries, using two phase 3 randomized controlled trials (BRAVE- AA1 and BRAVE-AA2) to establish its safety and efficacy; 1,200 adult patients who presented severity of AA participated considering a score of 50 or higher according to the SALT (Severity of Alopecia Tool; range 0 to 100, where 0 indicates that there is no hair loss on the scalp and 100 complete hair loss from the scalp.) Patients were randomly assigned to receive baricitinib at doses of 4 mg and 2 mg or placebo, once daily for 36 weeks.

Most participants had an average age of 37 years. Evidence showed that about 40% of participants who received a 4 mg dose of oral baricitinib had 80% hair growth after 36 weeks; for the 2 mg dose, 20% had satisfactory results, and only 6% had favorable outcomes with placebo. It should be noted that some adverse events reported were the presence of acne, urinary tract infection, and herpes zoster infections. This vital study showed that the blockage of the immune system that attacks the hair follicles favors hair growth.

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