Aclaris hammered as hair loss drug flops in PhII, days after FDA took issue with Eskata ads
The topical treatment for alopecia areata that Aclaris Therapeutics licensed from Rigel Pharma has failed a mid-stage study for alopecia areata, leaving the company with a drug that seems to have caused no harm but no benefit either.
While execs vowed to find a possible way forward with subgroup analysis, the results didn’t leave much room for hope. Neither the 0.46% or 0.12% concentrations of ATI-502 proved superior to placebo in improving scalp hair coverage — at least not in a statistically significant way. In fact, an unexpectedly effective vehicle outperformed the lower dose on several endpoints, which were alternative measurements of hair loss severity.
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