Health: a remedy against Vitiligo tested in Reunion

A medicinal implant tested for the first time in Reunion represents hope for a cure. Around 1% of the national population is affected by this disease with a strong aesthetic impact. For this reason, no patient wanted to testify on camera. Volunteers participating in the study are drawn at random. But only 52 will receive the implant to evaluate its effectiveness.

“It is a study which is randomized, that is to say there are two arms and this lady will therefore have treatment with an implant, she will be injected with this implant which will be injected subcutaneously and she will have this implant every three weeks And in addition, she will have UV sessions, phototherapy sessions, twice a week for 5 months.“, explains Virginie Lagougue, clinical research nurse (CHU Sud)

This molecule stimulates the body's pigments and should therefore make it possible to re-pigment white areas of the skin. Professor Bertolotti was able to see conclusive results in the United States thanks to this treatment: “it is a protocol that is offered to people who have vitiligo on the face and body and who have relatively dark skin. We must have a group of patients who will benefit from the treatment and a group of patients who will not benefit from treatment, we will be able to compare the effectiveness between these two groups and that is how things are then validated. The advantage is to offer Reunionese patients, some of them, the opportunity to use this molecule and it will perhaps only be released on the market in 3-4 years.”explains Antoine Bertolotti, university professor and dermatologist.

The treatment is currently in phase 3. Phases 1 and 2 have already proven its absence of danger for patients. If the results are good, the CHU hopes for progress towards reimbursement of the molecule by social security.