Oral Eczema Treatments Generate Excitement
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For patients with atopic dermatitis, oral medications could replace injections if dramatic results from two phase 2 trials are confirmed. The new oral drugs have yet to be compared directly with each other, or with injections of dupilumab, because no head-to-head studies have been conducted and the study designs are different, said Guttman, but results have been encouraging enough to raise hopes about a comparable effect.
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@debmalya Dupilumab "revolutionized" the treatment of moderate to severe atopic dermatitis, she explained. In the identical SOLO 1 and SOLO 2 trials (N Engl J Med. 2016;375:2335-2348), about half the patients achieved a 75% improvement in Eczema Area and Severity Index score (EASI-75) after receiving injections every other week for 16 weeks. In the SOLO studies, the incidence of herpes viral infections increased and 7% to 12% of patients receiving dupilumab developed conjunctivitis, but neither of these adverse events was considered serious, said David Eric Cohen, MD, from New York University in New York City, during his overview of new atopic dermatitis treatments at the meeting.