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Dermbits

Is long-term treatment necessary to observe maximal clinical benefit from baricitinib?

Alopecia

You. One of the important points with patients with severe alopecia areata is that when you're utilizing something like oral baracitinib, right, especially if you're starting with the higher dose, but you can certainly see it with the lower dose. And it depends on the extent of percentage of hair loss on the scalp that the patient has at base line. They had to have at least 50% of hair loss diffusely on the scalp at baseline. When we look at mean results, we're looking at the average. So some people did better and faster, some people did not quite as well and slower, but they all got there, or most of them significantly got to a good improvement. And the studies met the primary endpoint. Many of them do. Most of them are going to regrow some hair. So you have to follow along. And as you start to see benefit, many of these patients are going to be encouraged by that. And I encourage them to hang in there. Give this at least nine months to see what's going on. Now, if you got nothing in four or five months, something's going on. But if you're seeing improvement, incremental improvement, hang in there, because you may be someone that's having a slower response, but you will eventually get there. Remember, the hare won the race, but the tortoise also got there. So that's the way I would look at it. Now, if people decide to stop or they give up on therapy, they should expect that usually sooner, but sometimes later, their disease is going to come back and can easily get back to where they started. So you don't want it to get to that point.