The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first promising solution that could help people with alopecia get rid of the disease. The announcement was made after a series of trials over a drug initially intended to fight off symptoms of arthritis.
The approval of the health agency supports the usage of the pill called baricitinib to treat severe types of alopecia areata. The drug is the first-ever systemic solution promoted by the FDA against the risks of the disease.
The alopecia drug will be relayed to patients in daily dosages, an approach observed as most effective in all three trial phases.
Baricitinib Approved by FDA for Alopecia Treatment
WHITE OAK, MD - JULY 20: A sign for the Food And Drug Administration is seen outside the headquarters on July 20, 2020, in White Oak, Maryland.
Baricitinib is a drug that was developed to give ease and solution for patients affected with rheumatoid arthritis. In recent years, the compound gained the attention of medical researchers and began conducting investigations into whether or not it would be an effective medium to fight other autoimmune disorders such as alopecia areata.
According to New Atlas, alopecia is detected in over 300,000 individuals in the United States annually. One of the most identifiable symptoms of the illness is visible patches on the head caused by massive hair loss.
The hair strands are commonly the first and most favored target of alopecia due to the unwanted attacks of the immune system on the follicles. Before the discovery of baricitinib's efficacy for alopecia treatment, there were no solutions against its symptoms that were established throughout decades.
The discovery of the baricitinib's ability against the alopecia was due to observations revealing the compound's precision in interrupting the signaling pathways involved in harming hair follicles.
The Phase 3 trials involved approximately 1,200 participants. According to the findings, about one-third of people with severe alopecia symptoms experienced regrowth of their hair by simply ingesting the pill.
The authors found that the treatment worked best in the trials when the subjects took four milligrams of dosage of baricitinib daily. A separate group (about one-fifth), who took two-milligram pills, also had improvements in their hair.
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Eli Lilly's Olumiant Available to Public Soon
The baricitinib will be sold publicly under the brand name Olumiant. Experts will lead the drug's distribution from the pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly.
The FDA ensured that the first in-disease systematic drug for alopecia is effective and safe. Moreover, the treatment could work on any part of the entire human body rather than focusing on specific locations alone. The prescription of the drug will vary depending on the patient's treatment response and the illness's severity.
Olumiant is categorized as a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor for rheumatoid arthritis and works by blocking various enzymes. The compound would work on itself and is not recommended to be administered with other drugs of the same type.
Side effects of the drug include headache, weight increase, respiratory tract infections, and acne. About 2.2 percent of the total participants dropped out of the clinical trials due to the impacts they experienced during the program, New Atlas reports.
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