Updated on 06/14/2022 at 12:38 p.m
The slap in the face by Hollywood star Will Smith at the Oscars brought the hair loss disease of his wife Jada Pinkett Smith into focus – now the first systemic drug against alopecia areata has been approved in the USA.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Eli Lilly’s Olumiant. It’s the first ever in the USA for a hair loss medication that works on the whole body. The condition, which often manifests as patchy baldness, affects more than 300,000 people in the United States each year, the FDA said in its statement.
The now-approved tablets have been tested for more than six months in two studies involving patients who have lost at least 50 percent of their hair, the FDA wrote. The measure of the effectiveness of the drug was the number of patients who had regained at least 80 percent of their hair coverage in the 36th week.
Comedian Chris Rock had a gag at this year’s Oscars at the end of March Will Smiths Ms. Jada Pinkett, alluding to her shaved head. She rolled her eyes at the joke – the actress had often spoken openly about her pathological hair loss. Smith, however, surprisingly ran onto the stage, gave Rock a resounding slap in the face and returned to his seat. He then called twice in Rock’s direction: “Keep my wife’s name out of your damn mouth!” The film academy barred him from events for ten years.
© dpa