Common Arthritis Drug May Cure Alopecia

A professor of dermatology at the Yale School of Medicine conducted a study to determine if baricitinib, a Janus kinase inhibitor used to treat arthritis, could also cure alopecia. He and his colleagues conducted two large, randomized trials with 1,200 people with severe alopecia areata who had lost more than half of the hair on their heads. For 36 weeks, they took a daily dose of either 2mg or 4mg of baricitinib, or a placebo. Miraculously, a third of the patients who received the larger dose grew hair back. Apparently the drug disrupts the communication of immune cells that affect hair follicles. If the drug performs well in Phase 3 clinical trials, the drug could be a candidate for FDA approval to treat alopecia.