Adelaide A. Hebert, MD: New Research in the Pediatric Area of Dermatology

During this HCPLive interview segment, Hebert focused on the future of dermatology research for pediatric populations, a topic which she had explored in her talk given at the Fall Clinical Dermatology 2023 Conference for PAs & NPs.

Hebert works as professor and Chief of Pediatric Dermatology at the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and Children’s Memorial Hermann.

In her interview, Hebert was asked about pediatric patient preferences for treatments that they can more easily apply themselves.

“I certainly think that's true and I'll cite a specific example that that really makes this very concrete,” she stated. “In recent years, we've had an FDA-approved medicine called sirolimus gel 0.2% and it’s for patients with facial angiofibromas with tuberous sclerosis, this is a tremendous breakthrough.”

She noted that in previous years, doctors had formulated their own compounds, but noted that there was great variability, a frequent lack of insurance coverage, and that patients did not receive as reliable a result with some of these formulations as others.

“So with this new sirolimus gel 0.2%, we can give the patient's, potentially, an insurance-covered medication that's FDA-approved, that can result in great diminution of the facial angiofibromas, which are part of the tuberous sclerosis complex,” Hebert said.

Hebert was later asked about the rates of development in the pediatric treatment realm, specifically on which areas require greater attention.

“I certainly think in the realm of atopic dermatitis, we've had a number of new medicines…” she said. “The same is true with psoriasis, but it doesn't mean we don't have room for additional products with even more targeted bases.”

She noted that a lot of these areas, even those with many treatments, are still exciting as far as developments are concerned.

“We do have one FDA-approved drug now for vitiligo down to 12 years of age, it happens to also be approved for atopic dermatitis down to 12 years of age, that drug is called Opzelura. And again, we're very fortunate to have these very targeted therapies that really make our treatments so much more beneficial to our patients.”

To find out more about Hebert’s conference talk, view the full HCPLive interview above.

The quotes contained here were edited for the purposes of clarity.