Raj Chovatiya, MD, PhD: Comparing Abrocitinib to Other Treatments for Atopic Dermatitis

Raj Chovatiya, MD, PhD, spoke about the benefits of abrocitinib and comparisons with other treatments for atopic dermatitis in a recent interview with HCPLive.

Chovatiya works at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine's Dermatology Department as an assistant professor.

Chovatiya specifically went into what differentiated abrocitinib from other types of atopic dermatitis treatments when it came to dosing, a topic drawn from his 2023 Winter Clinical presentation.

“You know, when it comes to systemic treatments, sometimes flexibility is really an important point for our patients,” Chovatiya said. “And in the case of adversity, you actually have to approve doses, or technically three in terms of dose adjustment, but you're usually thinking about 100 and 200 milligrams. And the way the label is written, you'd usually start at at at 100 milligrams, and then after about 12 weeks of time, if you don't necessarily have the efficacy or control you're looking for, then you can bump up to 200.”

He continued with his description, going further into depth about what the differences were and their significance in his presentation.

“And so I think that compared to, let's say, biologics as an example—which works great too—for atopic dermatitis, it's really one dosing regimen for everybody,” Chovatiya explained. “So here, you can really tailor things to when somebody potentially might flaring versus when they might necessarily need more maintenance control.”

Chovatiya also went on to explain that he believes abrocitinib has a lot of trial data behind it and a lot of good information on its efficacy.

“And so I think that one of the really cool pieces of data is from the JADE COMPARE trial, that really allowed us to look at…patients that might have been treated with dupilumab, over the course of, you know, a normal treatment period,” he stated. “And then, what happens if they didn't actually get 2 endpoints we were looking for—those classic things like clear, almost clear, easy 75—what happens when those people are switched on to abrocitinib.

He went on to note that what the study found “was that, in fact, people who maybe weren't able to achieve control with that biologic medication, were actually able to get to some of these high endpoints over the course of 12 weeks of treatment.”

Chovatiya concluded with a description of what his views are looking into the future when it comes to abrocitinib treatment for atopic dermatitis.

“I think going forward, what we all want to see, of course, is additional safety data in the long run,” he said, later adding. “Individuals always want comparisons and head-to-head trials, but whether we get them or not is a different story. But by and large, (we need) more tools, where we can really start to parse out what is the right therapy for the right patient.”

For more information, view the full interview segment from Winter Clinical above.