Key clinical point: In patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD), baricitinib therapy resulted in rapid and sustained improvement in skin pain leading to an enhanced quality of life (QoL).
Major finding: Skin pain improved as early as by day 1 with 2 mg baricitinib (least square mean % change from baseline [Δ] −4.4%; P = .048) and by day 2 with 1 mg baricitinib ( Δ −6.7%; P = .011) vs. placebo, with improvements maintained through week 16 for both baricitinib doses ( P ≤ .05) and 70.9% vs. 10.4% of skin pain responders vs. nonresponders experiencing clinically meaningful improvement in QoL ( P < .0001).
Study details: Findings are from a post hoc analysis of the phase 3 BREEZE-AD5 study including 440 adults with moderate-to-severe AD and inadequate response to topical therapy who were randomly assigned to receive once-daily 1 mg baricitinib, 2 mg baricitinib, or placebo for 16 weeks.
Disclosures: This study was sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company. Three authors declared being employees and shareholders of Eli Lilly and other authors reported ties with several sources, including Eli Lilly.
Source: Rosmarin D et al. Rapid improvement in skin pain severity and its impact on quality of life in adult patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis from a double-blind, placebo-controlled baricitinib phase 3 study. J Cutan Med Surg. 2022 (Mar 31). Doi: 10.1177/12034754221088542