Background: The efficacy and safety of clindamycin phosphate 1.2%/tretinoin 0.025% (Clin-RA) were evaluated in three 12-week randomised studies.
Objectives: To perform a pooled analysis of data from these studies to evaluate Clin-RA's efficacy and safety in a larger overall population, in subgroups of adolescents and according to acne severity.
Materials & methods: 4550 patients were randomised to Clin-RA, clindamycin, tretinoin and vehicle. Evaluations included percentage change in lesions, treatment success rate, proportions of patients with ≥50% or ≥80% continuous reduction in lesions, adverse events and cutaneous tolerability.
Results: In the overall population, the percentage reduction in inflammatory, non-inflammatory and total lesions and the treatment success rate were significantly greater with Clin-RA compared with clindamycin, tretinoin and vehicle alone (all p<0.01). The percentage reduction in all types of lesions was also significantly greater with Clin-RA in the adolescent subgroup (2915 patients, p<0.002) and in patients with mild/moderate acne (3662 patients, p<0.02) versus comparators. In patients with severe acne (n = 880), the percentage reduction in all lesion types was significantly greater with Clin-RA versus vehicle (p<0.0001). A greater proportion of Clin-RA treated patients had a ≥50% or ≥80% continuous reduction in all types of lesions at week 12 compared with clindamycin, tretinoin and vehicle. Adverse event frequencies in the active and vehicle groups were similar. Baseline-adjusted mean tolerability scores over time were <1 (mild) and similar in all groups.
Conclusion: Clin-RA is safe, has superior efficacy to its component monotherapies and should be considered as one of the first-line therapies for mild-to-moderate facial acne.
Keywords: acne vulgaris; clindamycin phosphate; combination therapy; pooled analysis; tretinoin.