Countdown to World Congress for Hair Research

Alopecia areata and JAK inhibitors to be hot topics at the international conference that kicks off next week in Melbourne.

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About 350 clinicians from all over the world will gather in Melbourne next week for the World Congress for Hair Research 2022.

The international event will be held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre from 18-21 November, and is chaired by Dermatology Republic editor and dermatologist, Professor Rod Sinclair.

The Congress co-chair is Associate Professor Leslie Jones, of the University of Melbourne.

Professor Sinclair said the dynamic congress program was packed with international and regional speakers, as well as poster presentations and workshops.

“We have leading dermatologists, technologists, scientists and researchers from across the globe who will share new knowledge and emerging treatments of hair disease,” he said.

Professor Sinclair said alopecia areata would be one of the “big things” at the congress.

“There’s a lot of stuff around that, and particularly the new drugs baricitinib and ritlecitinib, the use in adults and children and the trajectories of response. Also, the safety data – that’s going to be the big news,” he told Dermatology Republic.

He said there would be some important takeaways from the conversations around the JAK inhibitors that are showing strong promise in treating the disease.

“One is that the prognosis is better the earlier you start the treatment,” he said.

“There seems to be a clear difference between people who start the treatment within three years and people who start the treatment after three years. There’s also a better response if you don’t let people get complete hair loss.”

Baricitinib (Olumiant, Eli Lilly) is already approved in Australia for patients with rheumatoid arthritis and in June this year it won US FDA approval for patients with severe alopecia areata.

Professor Sinclair is hopeful a TGA approval won’t be far away, describing the drug as a “game-changer” for people with alopecia areata.

Ritlecitinib is another JAK inhibitor also under investigation for alopecia areata. Professor Sinclair presented a late-breaking abstract on the successful use of ritlecitinib at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology in March.

Professor Andrew Wilks, co‐founder and CEO of the SYNthesis Group, will be one of the speakers on JAK inhibitors at the congress. The academic scientist is credited with discovering and patenting JAK1 and JAK2 and leading the team that invented and delivered the JAK inhibitor momelotinib.

Other topics at the conference will include female and male pattern hair loss, hair transplantation, paediatric hair disorders, hair follicle immunology, gene discovery and gene therapy, cicatricial alopecia, transgender hair and health, lasers, trichoscopy, stem cells, pigmentation, and emerging treatments for hair loss.

Professor Sinclair said he was looking forward to the opportunity to meet with Australian and international colleagues, many of whom he has not seen in three years due to covid travel restrictions and lockdowns.

 “It’s going to be great to meet face to face, trade ideas and generate collaboration, that’s really what these conferences are all about,” he said.