Tazarotene 0.045% may reduce acne, oily skin

WAILEA, Hawaii — Patients treated with tazarotene 0.045% lotion experienced a reduction in skin oiliness and acne, according to a poster presented at Maui Derm for Dermatologists.

“Excessive sebum production is a factor in facial acne development and oily skin is a frequent complaint of dermatology patients with or without acne,” Emil A. Tanghetti, MD, of the Center for Dermatology and Laser Surgery in Sacramento, California, and colleagues wrote. “Topical retinoids are a mainstay of acne treatment, though they are associated with cutaneous irritation, which may limit their use.”

Two double-blind, phase 3 studies evaluated the use of the retinoid tazarotene 0.045% lotion in patients with acne compared with vehicle lotion.

Oily skin was reported in 736 of the 1,614 patients in the intent to treat population.

Inflammatory lesions were reduced by 57% in the treatment group, compared with 48.4% of those in the placebo group, while noninflammatory lesions were reduced by 55.9% in the treatment group, compared with 42.1% of the placebo group.

Skin oiliness was improved in both the treatment (71.4%) and vehicle (71.1%) groups.

In a subset of 261 Black patients who had oily skin, 81.4% in the treatment group reported an improvement to “moderately” or “low/not” oily skin, compared with 67.6% of placebo-treated patients.

“Nearly three-fourths of all participants treated with tazarotene 0.045% lotion — including Black patients — had subjective reductions in skin oiliness by week 12, with over a third reporting low/not oily skin,” the authors wrote. ‘Tazarotene lotion also demonstrated efficacy and safety in the treatment of moderate to severe acne in participants with oily skin, with rates similar to the overall population.”