The MHRA recently approved ruxolitinib cream (Opzelura) for non-segmental vitiligo with facial involvement from 12 years of age.

About one in 100 people in the UK live with vitiligo, a chronic autoimmune disease. About 80 per cent of these have non-segmental vitiligo: symmetrical white patches on both sides of the body. 

Increased activity of pathways involving two forms of the enzyme janus kinase (JAK1/JAK2) contribute to the melanocyte destruction that causes vitiligo. Ruxolitinib selectively inhibits JAK1/JAK2.

The SmPC pools data from the TRuE-V1 and TRuE-V2 phase 3 studies. At 24 weeks, 31.0 per cent of patients treated with ruxolitinib cream showed at least a 75 per cent improvement from baseline in the facial Vitiligo Area Scoring Index (F-VASI75) compared with 9.6 per cent of controls. After 52 weeks, 50.3 and 28.2 per cent respectively showed better F-VASI75 scores. 

According to the New England Journal of Medicine (2022; 387:1445-55), 54.8 and 62.3 per cent of patients who applied ruxolitinib cream for 52 weeks in TRuE-V1 and TRuE-V2 respectively developed adverse events. 

The most common adverse events were application-site acne (6.3 and 6.6 per cent respectively), nasopharyngitis (5.4 and 6.1 per cent) and application-site pruritus (5.4 and 5.3 per cent).