BERLIN — Quality-of-life scores were significantly better at all time points in patients with mild to moderate acne treated with clindamycin 1% plus benzoyl peroxide 5% gel, when compared with adapalene 0.1% gel.
The primary end point in the investigator-blinded multicenter study, which included 168 patients aged 12-39 years, was quality of life as reflected in global scores on the validated Skindex-29 instrument after 2 weeks of therapy.
At 2 weeks, the mean 4.9-point improvement in the clindamycin 1% plus benzoyl peroxide 5% gel (BenzaClin, Sanofi Aventis) group was more than fivefold greater than the 0.9-point gain achieved in the adapalene 0.1% (Differin, Galderma) group, Dr. Aurora Guerra-Tapia reported at the annual congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.
At the 12-week mark, the improvement on Skindex was 7.3 points in the BenzaClin arm and 2.4 points in the Differin arm, according to Dr. Guerra-Tapia, professor and chief of dermatology at 12th of October University Hospital, Madrid.
The BenzaClin patients had significantly greater reductions in total acne lesions and inflammatory acne lesions at all time points in the 12-week trial.
Blinded investigators rated 43% of patients in the BenzaClin group as having an excellent overall tolerance score, compared with 20% in the Differin group. Tolerance was judged fair or poor in 5% of patients assigned to BenzaClin and 23% assigned to Differin.
Disclosures: The study was sponsored by Stiefel, a skin-care pharmaceutical company.