Alopecia Drug Approved by FDA; Here’s How Effective It Is in Curing Hair Loss

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a Tuesday announcement that it had approved a new drug that could cure the hair loss brought by alopecia areata.

The drug, known as Olumiant, is an oral tablet that was made for adult patients and marks the first FDA-approved treatment for the disorder. In a statement, the director of the Division of Dermatology and Dentistry in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Dr. Kendall Marcus, said that access to safe and effective treatment options was crucial.

Alopecia Drug

Alopecia areata, which is commonly referred to as simply alopecia, is an autoimmune disorder that develops when a person's body attacks its own hair follicles, causing hair loss anywhere. The American Academy of Dermatology Association said that the disorder can start at any age but noted that most patients develop it during childhood or in their teenage years.

Health experts know of several types of alopecia areata, including alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis. The disorder is believed to impact more than 300,000 Americans every year and often appears as patchy baldness, as per Fox News.

The oral tablets are a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor, which means that they block the activity of one or more of a specific family of enzymes, interfering with the pathway that leads to inflammation. The efficacy and safety of the newly-approved drug were tested in two randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled trials.

Participants of the trial had at least 50% scalp hair loss, as measured by the severity of an alopecia tool, for more than half a year. The patients received either a placebo or two or four milligrams of Olumiant, or four milligrams every day.

According to the FDA, in Trial AA-1, 22% of the 184 patients who were given two milligrams of Olumiant and 35% of the 281 patients who were given four milligrams of Olumiant achieved adequate scalp hair coverage. It came as the 5% of the 189 patients who received a placebo showed similar results.

Autoimmune Disorder

In Trial AA-2, officials found that 17% of the 156 patients who were given two milligrams of Olumiant and 32% of the 234 patients who were given four milligrams of Olumian achieved adequate scalp hair coverage compared to the 3% of the 156 patients who received a placebo.

The approval of the new drug comes as the disorder recently garnered national attention after actor Will Smith infamously slapped comedian Chris Rock for the latter's comments about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia.

Dr. Brett King, a Yale dermatologist who was the principal investigator for the two trials, said that the drug is a breakthrough for people who are suffering from the autoimmune disorder. It comes as many patients use wigs or scarves to hide their condition from other people.

"It's a devastating disease. Try to imagine you wake up with a spot one day. And then, imagine, three weeks later, or three months later, or three years later, imagine all of your hair going away," King said, NBC News reported.

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Hair loss, Drug, FDA, Food and Drug Administration