Hot Topics in Atopic Dermatitis
In The Pipeline
VIDEO: 'Incredibly replete' treatment pipeline in atopic dermatitis
Transcript
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The pipeline is, as you might imagine, with that sort of volume of new medications in the last few years, it suggests that we've learned a lot more about the mechanisms of disease. And so that knowledge leads to new medications and the pipeline is incredibly replete. There's the National Eczema Association is a wonderful advocacy group for atopic dermatitis, for patients, for providers, for all stakeholders really. And they have a page, a research page that captures all of the medications in, I think they limit it to, I think they may have all phases, but certainly you can narrow the window to phase three or above. And it's just crazy.
There are like more than double digit injectables, double digit orals, double digit topicals in that phase of development or beyond. So which ones am I most excited about? I guess it's mostly the ones I know the most about. So they're the ones that are furthest along. There's a novel target called OX40 and OX40 ligand, which is an important new area of information we've learned is important in the signaling of the inflammatory cascade of atopic dermatitis. That is, there is a OX40 blocker, which is pretty far down the road. We'll be excited to see where that goes.
There are medications that try to truly get at the, what we think is sort of the root cause. That's every parent's question is sort of what's the root cause here. And we don't have that full picture, but we know a molecule called Filaggrin, which is, it's almost, I sort of liken it to caulk in our skin. And if you don't have enough caulking, the skin, the skin is leaky in essence, and so can dry out, allergens and infections can get in. So that seems to be the original scent, if you will, of atopic dermatitis. And so they're investigations into, can we actually replace Filaggrin or have Filaggrin-based medications? That's interesting. The microbiome, oh my gosh, that's a fascinating topic. There's not, I don't think a specialty in medicine that the microbiome is now not an area of investigation and dermatology is no different. Atopic dermatitis specifically sort of dysbiosis of the cutaneous microbiome is a huge issue. And so there are a number of treatments now looking at that aspect. So yeah, a lot going on.
Robert Sidbury, MD, MPH, division head of dermatology at Seattle Children’s Hospital and professor in the department of pediatrics at University of Washington School of Medicine, explored the treatment pipeline in atopic dermatitis in a video interview.
“The pipeline is, as you might imagine, with that sort of volume of new medications in the last few years, it suggests that we've learned a lot more about the mechanisms of disease,” he told Healio. “And so that knowledge leads to new medications and the pipeline is incredibly replete.”
