James Del Rosso, DO: Discussing What’s New in the Medicine Chest for Dermatologists

At the 44th Annual Fall Clinical Dermatology Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, James Del Rosso, DO, presented a talk titled ‘What’s New in the Medicine Chest - Part 1.’ During the presentation, Del Rosso covered a variety of medication options which clinicians may be curious about understanding in greater detail.

Del Rosso is known for his work as both research director of JDR Dermatology Research and president of the American Acne and Rosacea Society. He was asked in a virtual interview with HCPLive's editorial team to comment on some of the therapies discussed in the talk.

“I cover, in ‘What's New in the Medicine Chest,’ some of the existing products that now may have new indications, products that are newly-approved, or things that are coming,” Del Rosso explained. “And there's so much of it with a fair amount of detail. But what I cover is I discuss topical agents. I focus on non-steroidal agents like topical ruxolitinib, which is Opzelura.”

Del Rosso noted that topical ruxolitinib has recently received strong long term, real-world data. He highlighted research presented at the 2024 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress showing strong results for patients with atopic dermatitis among those down to age 2.

Del Rosso added that it has not yet been US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved, though it has been for those aged 12 years and older with up to 20% body surface area. He also pointed out that it has been FDA-approved of vitiligo, up to 10% body surface area and once daily, though he noted that this takes longer as it is a different disease.

“We also have topical roflumilast 0.15% cream applied once daily, a non-steroidal agent under the brand name of Zoryve, for patients down to 6 years of age for atopic dermatitis as a non-steroidal agent,” Del Rosso said. “Zoyve foam 0.3% is approved down to the age of 9, once a day, for seborrheic dermatitis of any severity, and the cream is approved for psoriasis down to 6 years of age for any severity.”

Del Rosso noted that the tolerability, the delivery, the safety is excellent with all the formulations, even among those with atopic dermatitis and, to some extent, seborrheic dermatitis patients that one may assume would be more sensitive to topicals and report more irritation. The latter assumption is not true for this formulation.

“The lower strength, the 0.15% as opposed to the 0.3% for atopic dermatitis, as this is a very potent PDE4-inhibitor and the most potent of all the ones that we have commercially available, can be applied since for younger children you're applying to a smaller body. You're not necessarily going to be thinking, if they're using an extensive amount, that you are concerned about the systemic absorption, because then you might get into GI side effects that were not seen to any significant extent in the trials.”

For additional information on this topic, view the full interview posted above. To learn more about conference talks, check out our latest conference articles here.

The quotes contained in this interview summary were edited for clarity.