In this exclusive 51˶ video, , of the University of California, San Diego and Rady Children's Hospital, discusses new data on treatment of molluscum contagiosum, presented at the American Academy of Dermatology's recent annual meeting.
The following is a transcript of his remarks:
I was pleased to present some new data at the . This was actually the first presentation of two randomized, vehicle-controlled studies studying a treatment of molluscum contagiosum. Molluscum are a very common condition we see all the time in dermatology, a cutaneous, infectious disease. It can last for months, sometimes years, with some secondary problems associated with it. Historically, we have no FDA-approved treatment for molluscum. There are a variety of things that we do, but nothing that's been well studied, no evidence basis, and nothing approved.
This was two randomized, controlled studies of a design-specific cantharidin product in a unit-dose vial, which was set up by this company Verrica. The product is called VP-102. In this study of over 500 children and adults who were randomized 2:1 to the active cantharidin as compared to vehicle, the study showed tremendous successes, meeting the primary endpoints of having a much higher percentage of patients who cleared all of their molluscum. Now the way it was carried out is the cantharidin was put on individual lesions. This was put on every three weeks, up to four applications in total. Then patients were seen over time, and the results show there was a 40% to almost 55% of the patients cleared all of their molluscum as compared to around 18%, 19% in the vehicle group.
Adverse events, there was some local reactions as would be expected with an agent that's causing vesiculation and the work on the molluscum lesions. No serious adverse events associated with the VP-102. Very exciting, good datasets, phase III studies. Hopefully, [the] next steps will be publication of this data and the continuation of filing, hopefully for FDA approval so we'll have an FDA-approved treatment for molluscum.