Efficacy and Safety of Baricitinib in Patients with Severe Alopecia Areata over 52 Weeks of Continuous Therapy in Two Phase III Trials (BRAVE-AA1 and BRAVE-AA2)

BACKGROUND: The oral Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor baricitinib has demonstrated efficacy for severe alopecia areata (AA) over 36 weeks. There are limited data on the longer-term treatment of AA. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of baricitinib for AA in adults with ≥50% scalp hair loss through 52 weeks of continuous therapy in two phase III trials (BRAVE-AA1 and BRAVE-AA2). METHODS: Patients randomized to baricitinib at baseline in BRAVE-AA1 (N = 465) and BRAVE-AA2 (N = 390) retained their treatment allocation through Week 52. Efficacy outcomes included the proportion of patients achieving a Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT) score ≤ 20 (≤ 20% scalp hair loss). Data were censored after permanent treatment discontinuation or if collected remotely due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. RESULTS: Response rates for hair regrowth increased over the 52-week period. Of patients treated with baricitinib 4 mg and 2 mg, respectively, 40.9% and 21.2% in BRAVE-AA1 and 36.8% and 24.4% in BRAVE-AA2 achieved a SALT score ≤ 20 at Week 52. The most frequent treatment-emergent adverse events included upper respiratory tract infection, headache, nasopharyngitis, acne, urinary tract infection, creatine phosphokinase elevation, and COVID-19 infection. LIMITATION: There were no comparisons with placebo. CONCLUSION: Efficacy of baricitinib for adults with severe AA continuously improved over 52 weeks, indicating that long-term treatment may be necessary to observe maximum clinical benefit. There were no new safety signals. CLINICALTRIALS REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03570749 and NCT03899259. VIDEO ABSTRACT: SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40257-023-00764-w.