Deuruxolitinib Shows Promise for Treating Alopecia Areata

Treatment with deuruxolitinib (CTP-543), an oral Janus kinase (JAK) 1/JAK2 inhibitor, may lead to a significant regrowth of scalp hair in as few as 8 weeks and continue through 24 weeks in patients with moderate to severe alopecia areata, according to authors of a poster presented at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), held from March 17 to 21, 2023, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Researchers presented findings from the phase 3 THRIVE-AA1 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04518995), a double-blind, placebo-controlled study that included patients aged 18 to 65 years with alopecia areata involving 50% or more scalp hair loss. Participants were randomly assigned to treatment with deuruxolitinib 8 mg (n=351) or 12 mg (n=215) twice daily or placebo (n=140), and hair loss was measured using the Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT). The primary efficacy endpoint was a SALT score of 20 or less at the 24 week study conclusion.

Overall, the mean total SALT score was 85.9. Most patients (55.8%) had complete or near-complete hair loss, and the remaining patients (44.2%) had partial scalp hair loss.

At week 24, 29.6% of patients assigned to receive deuruxolitinib 8 mg and 41.5% of patients assigned to receive deuruxolitinib 12 mg achieved a SALT score of 20 or less compared with only 0.8% of patients in the placebo arm (P <.0001). By week 8, the investigators observed significant differences in hair regrowth when comparing the placebo treatment arm with both deuruxolitinib dose groups (P <.001).

A total of 20.8% and 34.5% of participants treated with 8 mg and 12 mg of deuruxolitinib, respectively, attained SALT scores of 10 or less by week 24 compared with 0% of placebo group participants (P <.0001). By week 12, patients treated with both deuruxolitinib doses experienced 75% and 90% relative improvements from baseline (P <.001) compared with patients receiving placebo.

“Both doses of deuruxolitinib resulted in significant regrowth of scalp hair, starting as early as 8 weeks and continuing throughout the 24-week study period,” according to the study authors. “The efficacy of deuruxolitinib in the treatment of moderate-to-severe alopecia areata is encouraging.”

Disclosure: This research was supported by CoNCERT Pharmaceuticals. Some of the study authors declared affiliations with biotech, pharmaceutical, and/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of authors’ disclosures.