Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – A new drug touted as a breakthrough acne treatment has long been the United States, although it is unclear when the drug will be available in Europe and elsewhere.
Clascoterone topical cream can provide hope for those of you who have red acne and oily skin. Despite being a common ailment, new drugs to treat acne are rare, although recent research has revealed the effects of diet.
But experts hail clascoterone as the first new type of acne treatment in nearly 40 years.
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“What’s really exciting about clascoterone is that it’s a completely new mechanism of action that tackles the underlying hormonal (causes) that underlie all acne,” US dermatologist John Barbieri told AFP.
There are two main types of acne treatment. One uses antibiotics to target the bacteria that cause acne, while the other stops the formation of dead skin cells.
But clascoterone makes cells less receptive to the hormone that produces sebum, an oily substance that normally keeps skin moisturized but which acne sufferers produce in excess.
A 2020 study published in the journal JAMA Dermatology found that clascoterone was more effective than a placebo, and had no significant side effects.
The study was enough to convince US authorities to approve the treatment, which US doctors have been able to prescribe since late last year.
French dermatologist Emilie Sbidian cautions that the study did not compare clascoterone with existing treatments. “So we don’t really know where to put it.” he said.
But people with acne in Europe are unlikely to get a cure any time soon. This wait is not due to the reluctance of the health authorities. The European Medicines Agency told AFP they had not even begun to evaluate the drug.
The timeframe instead fell to the company that manufactures the drug, Swiss Cosmo Pharmaceuticals.
“As a very small company, we focus first on the world’s largest market, which is the US,” said Diana Harbort, head of Cosmo’s dermatology division.
He told AFP that no single big company was interested in acne. This shows that major pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Sanofi and Novartis do not sell acne medications.
(dce)
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