Atopic Dermatitis Treatments Before and After Initiation of Ruxolitinib Cream: 6-Month Follow-Up Analysis of a US Payer Claims Database.

Purpose: Many patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), a highly pruritic, relapsing, inflammatory skin disease, experience inadequate disease control. Ruxolitinib cream was approved in the US in September 2021 for the treatment of mild-to-moderate AD. This analysis describes treatment patterns before and after initiation of ruxolitinib cream among patients with AD.

Patients and methods: This retrospective, observational study used medical and pharmacy claims data from the Healthcare Integrated Research Database (HIRD^®) and included adults and adolescents (aged ≥12 years) with an AD diagnosis, a first claim for ruxolitinib cream (index date) between October 2021 and July 2022, and continuous enrollment in a commercial or managed Medicare plan for 6 months before and after the index date. Analyses were also conducted in a subset of patients with a history of more advanced AD therapy (ie, systemic therapies, phototherapy, or ultrahigh-potent topical corticosteroids). Data from 6 months before ruxolitinib cream initiation (baseline period) and after initiation (follow-up period) were summarized using descriptive statistics.

Results: Of 1,581 patients in the overall AD cohort, 749 had a history of more advanced AD therapy. During the follow-up period, 43.8% of patients did not receive any other AD treatment. Compared with baseline, fewer patients received topical corticosteroids (52.3% vs 30.4%), topical calcineurin inhibitors (13.9% vs 6.6%), and topical phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitors (4.4% vs 2.3%) during the follow-up period; slightly greater reductions were observed among the subset with a history of more advanced AD therapies. Oral corticosteroid use decreased from 20.9% to 15.5% overall and from 44.1% to 20.7% in the subset with more advanced baseline therapy. Among patients receiving biologics at baseline, 17.4% did not receive these treatments during the follow-up period.

Conclusion: These 6-month follow-up data suggest that initiating ruxolitinib cream for AD may reduce the overall need for other topical treatments, oral corticosteroids, and biologics.