At Nuvothera, Rx Derma Veterans Develop OTCs For Serious Skin Conditions
Executive Summary
Firm launched Prosoria in 2018 as a four-product topical line for inflammatory autoimmune disease psoriasis containing salicylic acid 3% combined with turmeric and other botanicals. CEO Arthur Clapp says firm will launch turmeric supplements and plans adding products for acne, eczema, warts, nail fungus and rosacea.
Prosoria psoriasis treatment is the first product from Nuvothera Inc.’s pipeline targeting a lack of effective OTC topicals for serious skin conditions typically treated only with prescription medications, says CEO Arthur Clapp.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based firm launched Prosoria in early 2018 as a four-product topical line for inflammatory autoimmune disease psoriasis containing OTC monograph ingredient salicylic acid 3% combined with turmeric and other botanicals.
Marketplace reception to the line, Clapp said in an interview, is prompting the firm to launch turmeric-based supplements and to plan adding products addressing acne, eczema, warts, nail fungus and rosacea.
A high-potency supplement will launch in March under the Nuvothera brand containing a “super micronized” turmeric formulation, said Clapp, former business development vice president for topical drug firm Galderma Laboratories Inc., a division of Nestle SA subsidiary [C#199200273:Galderma SA].
The product will target inflammation throughout the body, including joints and skin conditions, and likely will pave the way for a full line of supplements centered on the benefits of turmeric, a “wonder” of a natural ingredient, he said.
The first turmeric supplement will retail on the brand's website and on Amazon.com alongside the Prosoria line of Conditioning and Hydrating Gel, Psoriasis Treatment Gel, Exfoliating and Moisturizing Cream and Rapid Repair Skin Exfoliating Ointment. The formulas are sold together, priced at $75.95 on Amazon, as a once-daily, three-step treatment that relieves the symptoms of psoriasis and helps prevent reccurrence.
Nuvothera simultaneously is working to create products for other skin conditions.
“We are focusing first on products for diseases not well-treated because there are no highly effective treatments for people,” Clapp said. “In the next few years what you will see is a whole slew of OTC products coming on the market from us using what is new out there and new technology, that will rival some of the [prescription medications] in effectiveness.”
Products for warts and eczema likely will roll out first, with acne and rosacea treatments also on the radar. “Acne and rosacea are things we know about and we can make really effective products,” Clapp said.
Learn From Rx Product Aesthetics
While at Galderma, Clapp headed the launch of the Differin Gel (adapalene 0.3%) prescription acne treatment, approved by FDA in 1996, when the firm was a joint venture between Nestle and L'Oreal SA. An adapalene gel 0.1% formulation of the product received FDA's approval as an Rx-to-OTC switch in 2016, the first nonprescription acne ingredient approved by the agency in 20 years. (Also see "Differin Gel Enters Changed Marketplace Since Last OTC Acne Drug Approval" - HBW Insight, 22 Aug, 2016.)
Clapp retired from Galderma in 2013 and launched Nuvothera in 2014 with two other former Galderma executives: Mike Yankovoy is chief financial officer and Bev Hope is marketing director. They developed Prosoria after realizing many of the 8m US consumers with psoriasis are wary of the high prices and odd side effects of prescription medications, which include oral drugs like retinoids and methotrexate in addition to steroid creams.
In developing the Prosoria line, Clapp and his team took lessons from what the Rx psoriasis treatment sector is doing right, such as offering products applied once daily rather than four times for most OTC psoriasis products, he said.
“People don’t apply products that often and they don’t apply them long enough and not the right way,” he said.
At the same time, most people with psoriasis are frustrated with the efficacy of many available OTC products, which contain active ingredients such as salicylic acid and coal tar. In addition to the inconvenience of being applied multiple times daily, many OTC treatments are smelly, greasy and poorly absorbed, Clapp said.
OTC brands promoted as psoriasis remedies include L’Oreal’s CeraVe (salicylic acid), Chattem’s Gold Bond (salicylic acid) and Alva-Amco Pharmacal Companies Inc.’s Psoriasin (coal tar).
In a 2018 release, Nuvothera noted that a survey published in the American Journal of Clinical Dermatology in 2017 found that 87.8% of patients, 98% of dermatologists and 98% of rheumatologists responding to the survey "felt there was a strong or moderate need for better psoriasis therapies” than what was available. Further, 51.5% of patients indicated current therapies “can be worse than the condition itself,” according to the survey results.
Clapp set out to develop products with a luxurious feel, applying what he’d learned at Galderma, whose previous corporate parent L’Oreal continues to market the high-end Lancome and Clinique brands. Prosoria products are “light and silky,” Nuvothera says.
In 2018, Prosoria received the National Psoriasis Foundation’s Seal of Recognition, which highlights OTC products “proven to safely and effectively manage the symptoms of psoriasis,” the foundation says.