Discussing Dose Flexibility in Adult Atopic Dermatitis, with Tejesh Patel, MD

At the 2025 Revolutionizing Atopic Dermatitis (RAD) Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, the HCPLive editorial team sat down with Tejesh Patel, MD/MBBS, about his portion of the session at RAD titled ‘Dose Flexibility in Adult Atopic Dermatitis.’

Patel, a professor and department chair at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center Department of Dermatology, was asked about examples of dose flexibility in the context of atopic dermatitis treatment. He spoke about the current landscape in terms of dose adjustments in various treatments for the skin condition.

“It's a really exciting time for atopic dermatitis,” Patel explained. “There are lots of different medications coming out and different ways we can deliver them. We have oral medications, we have injections, and we have new topical medications coming out also. In real clinical practice, we're seeing patients’ clinical responses to these medicines vary from the standard regimes that are out there. We're seeing that we can, in fact, actually have some flexibility in the way we manage these patients and maybe even extend times for maintenance. In that respect, [we can] decrease exposure to medicine, and therefore some of the side effects and so forth.”

Patel noted that there are biologics and Janus Kinase (JAK)-inhibitors, highlighting systemic drugs as an example of a drug that can have some flexibility in its use.

“In terms of the biologics, these are subcutaneous injections,” Patel said. “For maintenance, once we've got a clinical response, this data out there shows that you can actually increase the length of injections and maintenance of these injections. For dupilumab, you can go from around 2 weeks to maybe Q4W to, in some instances, Q8W. That's really exciting for both the patient and the clinician, because there's less frequency of administering this medicine. [This leads to] increased compliance, and they're less exposed to the medicine so some of the side effects may be decreased. Overall, there may be a decrease in cost to the healthcare system as well, because you're not administering these medicines as frequently.”

Patel highlighted that he believes it is an exciting time to talk to patients about dose flexibility in their atopic dermatitis drugs.

“I think in terms of compliance, if we're administering a medication less frequently or at a lower dose, I think that's appealing to the patients in terms of compliance,” Patel explained. “...I think one major takeaway from the talk is that you can really involve your patient with the decisions you're making. Give them the data, and see what appeals to them if they want to do an oral medicine or an injection. Involve them in every step, and also let them know that there's new data that come that's coming out that may mean that you're not needing to take the medicines as frequently, or you can lower the dose in the future.”

To find out more about dose flexibility in atopic dermatitis, as well as other related facts, view the full interview posted above. For more on these topics and others, view the latest conference coverage.

The quotes contained in this interview summary were edited for clarity.