@science: Patients who had lost most of their hair — with no meaningful regrowth for at least six months — got some of it back after taking a pill originally designed for arthritis.   The drug is upadacitinib, sold as Rinvoq, a JAK inhibitor that blocks specific proteins driving the immune overreaction behind both rheumatoid arthritis and alopecia areata — an autoimmune disease where the body's immune system mistakenly attacks its own hair follicles, sometimes stripping the scalp, eyebrows, and body hair entirely.   Researchers ran two Phase 3 trials, UP-AA1 and UP-AA2, spanning 237 clinical centers across 25 to 28 countries in Asia, Europe, and North and South America, enrolling 1,399 participants aged 12 to 64. Every patient had already lost at least half their scalp hair — a severity threshold that excludes the milder cases most existing treatments already handle reasonably well.   At the higher 30-milligram dose, 55% of patients regrew at least 80% of their scalp hair within 24 weeks, and up to 23% achieved complete, 100% regrowth — a genuinely rare outcome in alopecia treatment. The placebo group, by comparison, saw only about 2% reach that same threshold. The results also outperformed every other JAK inhibitor currently approved for the condition: baricitinib achieved 35-39% response rates, deuruxolitinib 31%, and ritlecitinib 23%, making upadacitinib the strongest response rate documented for this specific drug class so far.   The EU has already approved upadacitinib specifically for alopecia areata based on these results. In the U.S., AbbVie submitted its application to the FDA in April 2026, with a decision expected as early as 2027 — until then, U.S. doctors can prescribe it off-label, though insurance coverage varies.   For a disease with no cure and historically limited options for its most severe cases, a drug that already existed for a completely different condition may turn out to be the most effective treatment alopecia areata has seen yet.   source: King, B., et al. (2026). Upadacitinib for Severe Alopecia Areata (UP-AA1 and UP-AA2). JAMA Dermatology.

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Monday 31 August 2026 22:30:24 GMT