Emmy Graber, MB, MBA, Shares Top Clinical Pearls on Lasers, Erythema Treatments, and Emerging Therapies

At this year’s Fall Clinical Dermatology Conference, Emmy Graber, MD, MBA, discussed advancements in acne and rosacea treatments. She highlighted new 1726 nanometer lasers that directly target sebum, the importance of treating erythema, and newly-approved or soon to be approved therapies for acne and rosacea.

Graber, a board-certified dermatologist practicing in Boston, Massachusetts, spoke with Dermatology Times to share the top clinical pearls and key takeaways from her talks at the meeting.

Transcript

Emmy Graber, MD, MBA: My name is Dr Emmy Graber, and I practice in Boston, Massachusetts, and I'm very excited to be here at the Fall Clinical Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I presented in the Acne and Rosacea Forum, talking about devices for acne and rosacea. I talked about how in years past, although we had some devices for acne, none of them were really great, because they did not directly target sebum and the sebaceous gland. They targeted the sebaceous gland, but indirectly, almost as a bystander. We have these new lasers, which are of the 1726 nanometer wavelength, which directly target sebum, thus selectively destroying the sebaceous gland while keeping the epidermis intact. This means that we can safely treat the skin without causing damage that we don't want, but yet causing damage to one of the root causes of acne.

We talked about the results of one of the published clinical studies using these devices, showing that 52 weeks after treatment with the 1726 nanometer laser, there was a median reduction of 80% of inflammatory lesions. Those are great results, and that's just using a laser, no other concomitant topicals or oral agents.

We also talked briefly about lasers and devices for rosacea, and I made the important point that we should not ignore the erythema of rosacea. It dramatically improves patients quality of life to improve that erythema with either the pulsed dye laser or intense pulsed light devices.

I talked about: What did 2024 bring to the table for acne and rosacea? I talked about 2 different things. One thing was something that already came out in 2024 for acne, and something that we're hopeful may come out in 2024 for rosacea. Firstly, what happened in acne?

Well, last year in 2023, the FDA approved a new triple combination topical cream, which became commercially available in 2024. It combines clindamycin, benzoyl peroxide, and adapalene all together in one product. I talked about the results of several studies that showed around 50% of patients being clear or almost clear after using just this one prescription product. That's great for our patients to be able to get that kind of improvement with just using a single prescription topical. It contains 3 active ingredients.

The second thing I talked about is what may be happening in 2024, and that's in the field of rosacea. There's a product, an oral agent called DFD-29, which will be renamed hopefully, and that is a minocycline, low-dose 40 milligram tablet that has been studied for papulopustular rosacea. There is data that shows that after using that oral agent once daily for 16 weeks, patients are significantly better than those who are taking placebo and significantly better than those who are taking low-dose doxycycline, 40 milligrams once a day. This minocycline low-dose tablet could be the first new agent for rosacea that we've had in a long time. We are looking for possible FDA approval on that perhaps later in 2024. Thank you.

[Transcript has been edited for clarity.]

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