Arthritis drug discovered to cure ‘devastating’ alopecia

A COMMON arthritis drug has been approved by authorities in the US for people with alopecia after it was found to completely regrow hair in half of patients after a year.

The drug baricitinib, which is also used to treat Covid-19, enables regrowth by preventing the immune system from attacking hair follicles.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug for the treatment of alopecia areata, a disfiguring skin disease that causes rapid loss of scalp hair, and sometimes eyebrows and eyelashes.

The approval comes after trials in which 40 per cent of those who took the drug had complete or near-complete hair regrowth after 36 weeks.

After a year, nearly half of the patients’ hair had completely regrown.

It is the first treatment found for the condition.

Approximately 400,000 people in Britain have either have alopecia areata or have had it in the past. While some have a few small patches on the head, others can lose their entire body hair within a few weeks.

Eli Lilly, the drug company, is now expected to apply for approval in Europe and the UK.

“People with alopecia areata, dermatologists and other healthcare providers have been looking forward to this day when there is an Fda-approved systemic medicine for this often-devastating disease,” said Dr Brett King, professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine and lead trial investigator.

“Alopecia areata causes unpredictable hair loss that can be patchy or complete, and it affects people of all ages and ethnicities.