Not much good came from the Oscar night slap heard around the world, but it did highlight the need for better awareness and understanding around alopecia areata. The disease is not a punchline; it’s a serious autoimmune disorder.
To (literally) highlight the affliction which affects around 1.5 million Americans, Concert Pharmaceuticals is sponsoring the "Light It Up Blue 4 Alopecia Areata" campaign. Throughout September, Alopecia Areata Awareness Month, bridges, buildings and other landmarks around the country will be illuminated in a brilliant blue.
Visitors to the sites are encouraged to take photos and post them on social media with the hashtag: #LightItUpBlue4AlopeciaAreata. For those who can’t make it in person, the campaign suggests people buy a blue lightbulb and create their own landmark.
Concert Pharma will feature each illumination on its Twitter page, @ConcertPharma, and LinkedIn page. The company will be presenting at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology late-breaking news session about its THRIVE-AA1 (phase 3) data in alopecia areata.
This isn’t the first time light has been used to bring attention to lesser known afflictions. Rocket Pharma has been running the "Light Up for Rare" event held the last day in February since 2009.
Concert has a late-stage alopecia drug in the pipeline, namely its JAK inhibitor CTP-543, which just last month finished off the second of its two phase 3 trials with positive data. Concert now plans to send off the drug for an FDA approval in the first half of next year.
The biotech was, however, beaten to the punch by Eli Lilly when it received FDA approval for its rival JAK inhibitor Olumiant, which nabbed a new license for use in treating alopecia in mid-June. Olumiant is already used for severely active rheumatoid arthritis and COVID-19 treatment for some hospitalized adults.