Discussing Tirbanibulin, Unmet Needs of Patients with Actinic Keratosis, With Neal Bhatia, MD
In a previous interview, Neal Bhatia, MD spoke on his team’s findings regarding actinic keratosis clearance and lesion count reductions achieved when patients used tirbanibulin in an open-label phase 4 study and in real-world clinical settings.1,2
These findings, summarized in a poster titled ‘Clearance of actinic keratosis with tirbanibulin: Comparing results from controlled trials with real-world/low interventional clinical studies,’ were presented during the 2025 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress in Paris. Bhatia, who serves as director of clinical dermatology at Therapeutics Clinical Research, spoke with HCPLive in an interview on-site about the findings.
“I think the unmet needs, unfortunately, are a function of label, because all the drugs from that have come for AKs are all monotherapy,” Bhatia explained. “We don't use monotherapy with a case we think in terms of and and not or, where we're thinking, ‘I want to freeze and then I want to do something to keep things away, and I want to treat the floater damage as well.’ So that's really an unmet need, more about do we do [this]? We need more studies that show you know the progression and an algorithm that we can all live by, and that will help with insurance coverage as well, when we can justify why we do things in tandem”
Bhatia highlighted that there is less of a need for new drugs than the need for dermatologists to implement current medications for actinic keratosis, to the patient’s advantage.
“Dermatologists have a big red flag about patient reactions,” Bhatia said. “They say, ‘Well, my patients don't want to get red, I don't have the time to get these drugs covered, and it's not important to me.’ [They say they’ll] just freeze and do PDT, and be fine. And you know, the freeze-and-go mentality is just a bandage. It's not treating the process, and we're not helping reduce skin cancer risk with that mentality.”
For any additional information related to research presented at EADV, view our latest coverage of the conference.
Bhatia has reported serving as a consulting honoraria from and investigator for Almirall, Biofrontera, Leo, Ortho, and Sun Pharma.
References
Bhatia N, Martin G, Schlesinger T, et al. Clearance of actinic keratosis with tirbanibulin: Comparing results from controlled trials with real-world/low interventional clinical studies. Presented at the European Association of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) 2025 Congress. Paris, France. September 17-20, 2025.
Bhatia N. Spotlighting Data on Clearance of Actinic Keratosis Using Tirbanibulin, With Neal Bhatia, MD. HCPLive. September 24, 2025. Accessed September 25, 2025. https://www.hcplive.com/view/spotlighting-data-clearance-actinic-keratosis-using-tirbanibulin-neal-bhatia-md.