"Speaking of Vitiligo..."

World Vitiligo Day isn't just a date on the calendar, it's a global movement dedicated to raising awareness, advocating for people with vitiligo, and fostering a strong sense of community. Every June 25th, we unite under the color purple, not just for awareness, but to celebrate the remarkable journey we share.

I’m on a plane back home from 2024 World Vitiligo Day celebrations in Indianapolis! This year was unique, in that 3 different meetings were planned together, including a new children’s camp for kids with vitiligo, the first educational session for dermatology trainees to learn how to care for vitiligo patients, and then the advocacy meeting for people with vitiligo. It was a huge success! 

Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors are a class of medications that target specific enzymes (JAK proteins) involved in signaling pathways that drive the immune system. By inhibiting these enzymes, JAK inhibitors can modulate the immune response, making them effective in treating various inflammatory conditions.

The VIGOR study is just one of the groundbreaking initiatives in vitiligo research happening at UMass Chan Medical School. Many of the VIGOR researchers, plus several others recently gathered for the first annual Vitiligo Center of Research Translation (VCORT) Symposium held at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, MA.

This week I had the privilege of visiting the Massachusetts State House for an indoor rally hosted by VITFriends, a non-profit vitiligo patient advocacy group whose focus is to bring the vitiligo community together and raise awareness about vitiligo. I met with many members of the community, and we were joined by State Representative Rob Consalvo to talk about advances in vitiligo.

Dr. John Harris discusses breakthroughs in vitiligo and how they've helped advance treatment options for many autoimmune diseases

Opzelura was already approved last September, 2021, for a disease called atopic dermatitis, or eczema, so you may have already seen it in the pharmacy. But most couldn’t get it covered by insurance for vitiligo because it wasn’t approved for it, and so NOW IT IS!

RSVP study is specifically for those who have treatment-resistant vitiligo that is STABLE, or not changing for at least 1 year. The process being tested is to transplant pigment cells from one part of the body without vitiligo to another part that is affected by vitiligo.

Incyte decided to run a Phase 3 Clinical Trial in over 600 patients all over the world, with the goal of supporting an application to the FDA (and the European equivalent, the EMA) to approve the treatment for patients. This means it would be available for prescription from the pharmacy, and should be covered by health insurance companies, as it would become the first and only FDA-approved treatment to reverse the effects of vitiligo! Well, we recently heard (although the data isn’t publicly available yet) that the results of the Phase 3 trial were excellent!

Vitiligo’s crystal ball

One of the frustrating aspects of vitiligo is its unpredictability. It’s hard to know when it will become active and when it will be stable. Individuals with vitiligo tell me they often worry about waking up and finding a new spot on their skin. They worry about the future and wonder if their vitiligo will get worse. But what if there was a crystal ball that could tell you what was in your future?