The following is the summary of “Efficacy and Safety of Water-Free Lipid Formulation System Containing Calcipotriol Against Psoriasis Vulgaris” published in the December 2022 issue of Dermatology by Holmback, et al.
The vitamin D analogue calcipotriol is commonly used to treat a skin condition known as psoriasis. However, inadequate usage of the medicine and the barrier it has established have resulted from poor adherence to topical treatments. Therefore, a water-free lipid-based formulation technique was created to boost dose, aesthetic characteristics, and patient compliance. The purpose of this research was to compare the efficacy and cutaneous safety of calcipotriol (50 μg/g) in water-free lipid-based formulations to that of their respective carriers and commercially available calcipotriol formulations in a psoriasis plaque test.
Treatment was administered once a day for 12 days, and the study included 24 participants with persistent psoriasis vulgaris who were either given a vehicle or a placebo (10 applications). Sonographic evaluation of psoriatic infiltration and clinical efficacy evaluations were used to determine the treatment’s efficacy against psoriasis. Mean reductions in psoriatic infiltrate from baseline to day 12 (the end of the trial) were 34% and 37% with lipid-based calcipotriol formulations, respectively, compared to their respective vehicles (6% and -4%) but were not statistically significant (P>0.0001) when compared to marketed calcipotriol solution and cream (-34% and -49%).
These lipid-based calcipotriol formulations had mean total clinical evaluation scores (1.7) that fell between those of the commercial calcipotriol solution (1.3) and the cream (2.0). In addition, 4 patients reported experiencing side effects after taking any kind of calcipotriol, but only mild discomfort went away by the time of the scheduled follow-up. To treat psoriasis vulgaris, innovative lipid-based formulations of calcipotriol were clearly more effective than their comparable vehicles.
