Alopecia could be subdivided into two main groups of diseases: non-scarring alopecia, such as
male pattern baldness, or alopecia areata (AA), in which hair follicles are preserved, yet
quiescent, and scarring alopecia, also known as cicatricial alopecia (CA), in which hair
follicles are irreversibly destroyed. CA leads to scarred areas, most commonly on the scalp,
that cannot re-grow hair. Despite being a long-term condition, that often has significant
impact on patients' well-being, available effective treatments for these diseases are
lacking. In addition, the molecular abnormalities causing CA are largely unknown. The
research team will be administering a new investigational drug (a JAK3/TEC inhibitor),
ritlecitinib, which has shown statistically significant improvement in scalp hair loss for AA
patients in a proof of concept and phase 2b/3 studies (B7981015 AA study). This is an
open-label clinical trial. CA patients will be asked to provide small samples of skin and
blood throughout the treatment period, to find out how they respond to the drug, and to
attempt to better understand these diseases.