Novel skin brightener used as monotherapy for moderate melasma in skin of color.

Melasma is a chronic, relapsing disorder that can be disfiguring and can have adverse effects on quality of life. Recently, a unique hydroquinone-free topical product addressing multiple pathways involved in pigmentation was shown to have similar efficacy and equally well tolerated as 4% hydroquinone in females with facial hyperpigmentation. The goal herein was to further assess the efficacy and tolerability of this new multimodality product for the control of moderate melasma in skin of color. Six female subjects with Fitzpatrick skin types IV-V in good general health between the ages of 46 and 63 years with moderate epidermal facial melasma are presented herein. Subjects applied the skin brightener twice daily, morning and evening, and returned to the clinic at weeks 4, 8, and 12. By week 12, Investigator Overall Hyperpigmentation scores and MASI scores improved by an average of 22% and 38% from baseline, respectively. Additionally, 100% of subjects showed at least a 25% increase in Global Improvement at week 12. The skin brightener was well tolerated with no reports of erythema, edema, scaling, burning/stinging, or itching. Results from these case studies suggest that this multimodality skin brightener may provide an alternative treatment to hydroquinone for moderate melasma in skin of color. However additional clinical studies would be needed.