In another segment of his HCPLive video interview, Lawrence Eichenfield, MD, spoke about he and his team’s response to the recent approval of VP-102 (cantharadin 0.7%), the inaugural treatment option indicated for molluscum contagiosum, as well as what it means for patients.¹

Eichenfield holds the position of chief of pediatric and adolescent dermatology at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego. Additionally, he serves as a professor of dermatology and pediatrics while also holding the role of vice-chair within the Department of Dermatology at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

“So this is a procedural therapy that's put on in the office, it's not a home-based prescription,” he explained. “And the clinical trials were set up in that particular way to, first of all, treat the predominant population that has molluscum, so it was predominantly pediatric patients. In the study though, the range of age was from age 2 on into adulthood, up to a 60 year old, with a range of lesions, on average 20. But up to one patient had a 184.”

Before the approval, the New Drug Application (NDA) for VP-102 had relied upon data derived from the clinical studies of CAMP-1 and CAMP-2. The trials’ findings indicated a substantially elevated level of complete lesion clearance and a decrease in lesion count compared to the control group at the 84-day mark (P < .0001).

“The study was basically a traditional vehicle control study where patients either received the application of the cantharadin product or its vehicle,” he said. “And it was done with a sort of baseline evaluation treatment, one at 3 week intervals, up to 4 treatment periods.

When asked about his and his team’s response to the findings, Eichenfield explained in detail.

“So I think that number 1, having spent years in the pediatric dermatology world, and always interested in cutaneous infections, we used to have this sort of ‘wait and see’ approach from pediatricians,” he explained.

Eichenfield added that this was a particularly difficult approach for individual families with members who had the skin disease.

“Now there are good studies showing the efficacy (of VP-102),” he said. “And now over the next few months, what we want is to get this into the hands of practitioners so that they can use it. It has this advantage of being a specific unit dose, so we just have to make sure we get it into the offices with the time that we have our patients. We have it available, and it will work the way it is as an individual unit.”

The quotes within this interview description were edited for clarity.

References

1. ^{Verrica Pharmaceuticals Announces FDA Approval of YCANTH™ (cantharidin) topical solution 0.7%. News release. Verrica Pharmaceuticals. Published July 21, 2023. https://verrica.com/press_release/verrica-pharmaceuticals-announces-fda-approval-of-ycanth-cantharidin-topical-solution-0-7/.}