In January 2009 we learnt that Medicis was interested in trialing Ziana as a treatment for rosacea. Medicis may be known to rosacea sufferers because they also make Plexion and Solodyn.
Sadly the rigorous nature of a clinical trial was not able to show that Ziana could reduce the papules and pustules of rosacea any better than the placebo.
Some Small Good News
The trial did find “nearly significant” (a hopeful term if I ever heard one) improvement in how the doctors perceived the broken blood vessels and also provable significant improvement in the redness associated with the rosacea symptoms.
Note also that participants experienced statistically significant increased facial scaling.
So overall not a great result for Medicis, whom I’m sure would have liked to been able to promote Ziana as an official treatment for the papules and pustules of rosacea.
User Reviews
Did you try Ziana ? Did you find any reduction in redness and facial blood vessels ? Would you recommend it ?
J Drugs Dermatol. 2012 Mar 1;11(3):333-9.
Chang AL, Alora-Palli M, Lima XT, Chang TC, Cheng C, Chung CM, Amir O, Kimball AB.
Background: Papulopustular acne rosacea is a chronic inflammatory condition which can be difficult to treat. Many patients are unwilling to use systemic medications, and single topical agents alone may not address all the symptoms of rosacea. A combination topical clindamycin phosphate 1.2% and tretinoin 0.025% gel is efficacious for acne vulgaris, and may be helpful for rosacea, since acne vulgaris and rosacea shares many similar clinical and histologic features.
Objective: To assess the preliminary efficacy and safety of a combination gel consisting of clindamycin phosphate 1.2% and tretinoin 0.025% on papulopustular rosacea after 12 weeks of usage.
Methods: Randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled two site study of 79 participants with moderate to severe papulopustular acne rosacea using both physician and subjects’ validated assessment tools. Primary endpoint consisted of statistically significant reduction in absolute papule or pustule count after 12 weeks of usage.
Results: There was no significant difference in papule/pustule count between placebo and treated groups after 12 weeks (P=0.10).
However, there was nearly significant improvement in physicians’ assessments of the telangiectasia component of rosacea (P=0.06) and erythematotelangiectatic rosacea subtype (P=0.05) in treated versus placebo group after 12 weeks.
The only significant adverse event different was facial scaling, which was significantly increased in treated group (P=0.01), but this did not result in discontinuation of study drug.
Conclusions: A combination gel of clindamycin phosphate 1.2% and tretinoin 0.025% may improve the telangiectatic component of rosacea and appears to better treat the erythemotelangiectatic subtype of rosacea rather than papulopustular subtype.
Our preliminary study suggests that future studies with much larger sample size might confirm our findings.
Clinical Trials: NCT00823901.
