Acknowledgements The manuscript was reviewed by: D. Ioannides, First Department of Dermatology-Venereology, Aristotle University Medical School Hospital for Skin and Venereal Diseases, Thessaloniki, Greece; and A. G. Messenger, Department of Dermatology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK. During the peer review process, Pfizer, the marketing authorization holder of ritlecitinib, was also offered an opportunity to provide a scientific accuracy review of their data. Changes resulting from comments received were made on the basis of scientific and editorial merit.
Declarations
Funding The preparation of this review was not supported by any external funding.
Authorship and conflict of interest M. Shirley is a salaried employee of Adis International Ltd/Springer Nature and declares no relevant conflicts of interest. All authors contributed to this article and are responsible for its content.
Ethics approval, Consent to participate, Consent for publication, Availability of data and material, Code availability Not applicable.
Additional information about this Adis Drug Review can be found
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Abstract
Ritlecitinib (Litfulo™) is a valuable new option for the treatment of severe alopecia areata in individuals aged ≥ 12 years. Of note, ritlecitinib, a dual selective Janus kinase (JAK)-3/TEC family kinase inhibitor, is the first targeted treatment for severe alopecia areata to be approved for use in adolescents. In the pivotal, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2b/3 ALLEGRO trial in adults and adolescents with alopecia areata with ≥ 50% scalp hair loss, once-daily oral ritlecitinib 50 mg significantly increased the percentage of patients achieving ≤ 20% scalp hair loss at 24 weeks. Ritlecitinib therapy was also associated with eyebrow and eyelash regrowth. Response rates for key efficacy outcomes in the pivotal trial continued to increase with treatment up to 48 weeks. Longer-term data indicate that responses are sustained with continued treatment. Ritlecitinib is generally well tolerated, with most adverse events being of mild severity and not requiring dose interruption or treatment discontinuation.
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