deloratadine

[Guest guest]

Has anyone tried desloratadine yet? It's now available in the US as

Clarinex. It's available in the EU as Aerius and/or Neoclarityn.

Below is an article that Matija posted about it late last year.

Hi,

I found another article from the Nov. 2001 issue of Skin & Allergy

News. Desloratadine sounds like an antihistamine which may be able to

treat inflammatory, UV-induced skin conditions. Maybe some of our

European posters can try this and report back to the group? This drug

sounds like it's tailor-made for rosacea.

Take care,

Matija

Under FDA review

Europeans Enthusiastic About Desloratadine

Bruce Jancin

Denver Bureau

MUNICH — Once-daily desloratadine is " an important therapeutic

advance " in the management of chronic idiopathic urticaria, Dr.

Rudiger Hein said at a satellite symposium held in conjunction with

the 10th Congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and

Venereology.

The efficacy and side-effect profile of this potent new nonsedating

antihistamine are such that Dr. Hein and other German physicians

experienced with it agreed it has become their preferred option even

in children, despite the lack of pediatric clinical trial data or a

specific indication.

Desloratadine has been available in Germany since February. Schering-

Plough Corp. has filed for marketing approval with the U.S. Food and

Drug Administration as well as in the remaining European Union

countries for the indications of chronic idiopathic urticaria and

allergic rhinitis.

Dr. a Kerscher, a dermatologist at the University of Hamburg,

said this potent peripheral histamine-receptor blocker features

roughly 50-fold greater histamine-1 inhibition than any other

antihistamine, including loratadine (Claritin), fexofenadine

(Allegra), and cetirizine (Zyrtec), as well as the older sedating

antihistamines.

In vitro studies suggest desloratadine's anti-inflammatory activity

is in the same ballpark as that of dexamethasone. Moreover, Dr.

Kerscher's UVB studies in 10 patients with polymorphic light eruption

provided compelling clinical evidence of the drug's anti-inflammatory

action, as patients' minimal erythema dose increased significantly

after just one dose of desloratadine. Photosensitivity was even

further reduced after 5 days of the drug at 5 mg/day, she said at the

satellite symposium sponsored by Schering-Plough.

On the strength of this effect, she has been utilizing desloratadine

to treat patients—including children—with polymorphic light eruption

and a variety of other inflammatory, pruritic skin diseases in

addition to chronic idiopathic urticaria.

" In Germany it's not allowed under law [to prescribe desloratadine in

children], but we are doctors. And the high anti-inflammatory

activity combined with the high antihistamine activity offers a new

therapeutic possibility, even in children. Quality of life and

quality of sleep improve. ... I do not use the old substances in

children anymore, " she said.

Dr. Hein concurred. He reported on a double-blind trial in which he

and his colleagues randomly assigned 190 patients aged 12-79 years

with flaring chronic idiopathic urticaria to 5 mg of desloratadine or

placebo daily for 6 weeks.

After a single dose, the desloratadine group showed significantly

greater improvement in pruritus, number of wheals, sleep disturbance,

and activities of daily living. These benefits were maintained

throughout the 6-week study. No one in the desloratadine group

dropped out due to treatment-related adverse events, and there were

no clinically significant changes in QT interval or other ECG

measurements, added Dr. Hein, professor of dermatology at Technical

University, Munich.

Session chair Dr. Klaus Bachert put in a plug for physicians to

evaluate their patients with urticaria or atopic dermatitis for other

allergic manifestations, especially allergic rhinitis and asthma.

Current thinking holds that these are systemic diseases and that

patients with manifestations in the skin are at increased risk for

other-organ involvement.

The World Health Organization recently labeled allergic rhinitis as a

major chronic respiratory disease based on frequency, associated high

medical costs, adverse impact upon school and work performance and

quality of life, and the fact that allergic rhinitis is associated

with at least a four- to five-fold increased risk of developing

asthma, noted Dr. Bachert of the University of Ghent (Belgium).