Latest acne treatment gets working quickly

The latest topical acne treatment to be available in Australia has been found to get working fast with improvements occurring within two weeks of starting treatment.

Acnatac is known as a fixed-dose combination medication.  It is a topical gel combining the antibiotic, clindamycin with the retinoid, tretinoin.

Clindamycin works by reducing acne-causing bacteria and is also anti-inflammatory while tretinoin unclogs pores.

Sydney dermatologist and co-chair of All About Acne, Dr JoAnn See said while the rapid onset of action is likely to be appealing to anyone with acne, treating acne does take time.

“Getting rid of pimples depends on what type of acne you have and it usually takes about 12 weeks to see the full benefit of most treatments, but there are improvements along the way,” she explained.

Acnatac has been shown to be effective at treating mild and moderate acne.

“One way of assessing how well an acne treatment is working is to see how it has affected acne lesions,” she explains.

“An analysis of three studies involving more than 4,500 acne patients found the medication was well tolerated and reduced both inflammatory and non–inflammatory acne lesions.”

After 12 weeks of once-daily treatment with Acnatac, inflammatory lesions were reduced by 65% and non-inflammatory lesions by 51%. Furthermore, one in two patients had a ≥ 50% continuous reduction in total lesions.

In relation to antibiotic resistance, Acnatac was found not to increase resistance in a particular type of acne bacteria for up to 16 weeks of treatment.

“Appropriate use of antibiotics in acne treatments is a priority.  Doctors will often combine an antibiotic with a topical retinoid to limit the development of antibiotic resistance, and that seems to have occurred in these studies,” says Dr See.

Females may need to consider contraception when taking Acnatac to ensure they do not become pregnant.

“The retinoid component can be harmful to a foetus so if you are planning a pregnancy, pregnant or breast-feeding, Acnatac is not appropriate for you,” said Dr See.

Acnatac is a prescription medicine and is only available on private script from your GP or dermatologist.