Is there any cream form for tofacitinib/Shangjie?

The current main dosage forms of Tofacitinib are oral tablets and some sustained-release dosage forms under development. There is no officially approved cream dosage form on the market for clinical use. Patients often raise this issue during consultation, especially those with skin diseases, who hope to reduce systemic adverse reactions through topical use. However, according to public information from international drug regulatory agencies, tofacitinib’s topical cream is still in the research and development and clinical trial stages and has not yet been widely launched in the global mainstream market.

Oral tofacitinib can be absorbed through the system and block multiple inflammation-related signaling pathways, thereby controlling the course of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ulcerative colitis (UC), ankylosing spondylitis, etc., while topical preparations are designed to provide patients with skin diseases with a direct approach to the lesions. For example, there are some foreign clinical studies on tofacitinib topical cream in alopecia areata, vitiligo and other diseases, showing that its topical application has potential value in improving skin inflammation and promoting hair regeneration. But most of these studies are in their early stages and have yet to receive large-scale regulatory approval.

In contrast, some other JAK inhibitorssuch as ruxolitinib topical cream have been approved in some areas to treat atopic dermatitis, which provides a reference direction for the future development and marketing of tofacitinib cream. For patients, if they do have a need for topical medication, they can currently only rely on other approved drugs or wait for further clinical progress in topical formulations of tofacitinib.

Therefore, it can be concluded that the current clinical use of tofacitinib is still mainly oral dosage forms, and the cream dosage form has not yet been approved for marketing. In the future, with the expansion of the topical field of JAK inhibitors, whether tofacitinib can enter the market in the form of topical preparations deserves continued attention.

Reference materials:https://www.xeljanz.com/