Active ritlecitinib may improve hair growth in patients with alopecia areata: Study

The patients with AA with ≥50% scalp hair loss were randomized in the ALLEGRO-2b/3 study to receive daily ritlecitinib or placebo for 24 weeks, followed by a 24-week extension during which they may continue receiving ritlecitinib or shift from placebo to ritlecitinib. 3 categories like the quantity, quality, and overall satisfaction with hair growth were assessed using the Patient Satisfaction with Hair Growth (P-Sat) measure. A number of post hoc studies determined polyserial correlations between modifications from baseline (CFB) in Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT) and P-Sat ratings at weeks 24 and 48, as well as the percentage of patients who were moderately/very happy and moderately/very dissatisfied.

By week 24, the percentage of patients who were satisfied with their hair growth overall varied between the ritlecitinib 10-mg and 200/50-mg groups (36.4%) and the placebo groups (22.6%). At week 48, the percentage of satisfied patients in the ritlecitinib-randomized group either rose or remained stable. When switching from a placebo to ritlecitinib, a significantly higher percentage of patients expressed satisfaction at week 48 when compared to week 24. The advantage of ritlecitinib was also observed in the post hoc analysis that defined satisfaction as moderately/very satisfied and unhappiness as moderately/very unhappy. At weeks 24 and 48, there was a substantial correlation between all P-Sat domain scores and CFB-SALT scores. Overall, Ritlecitinib should be explored in patients with 50% or more hair loss due to alopecia areata, since satisfaction levels remained stable 48 weeks following therapy commencement.

Source:

Sinclair, R., Law, E. H., Zhang, X., Zhang, F., Napatalung, L., Zwillich, S. H., King, B., & Mesinkovska, N. (2024). Patient-Reported Satisfaction with Hair Regrowth in a Study of Ritlecitinib in Alopecia Areata: Results from ALLEGRO-2b/3. In Dermatology (pp. 1–11). S. Karger AG. https://doi.org/10.1159/000539536