Phase 2 trials show significantly improved scars

Implications: Juvista appears to be effective in improving scar quality according to recently released Phase II results. Renovo reported no clinical improvement in breast augmentation scars treated with a single injection of the drug.

Analysis: Juvista appears to be an effective adjunct in the persuit of improved scars. In the recently released Phase II results, patients had a improvement in scar quality in those scars treated with Juvista as compared to those untreated. These results substantiate preliminary results reported at the March 2007 American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery meeting in New York.

The company was unable to demonstrate improved scars in a cohort of breast augmentation patients treated with a single dose of Juvista. The company contends that additional treatments would show an improvement in the these scars. As a practicing plastic surgeon, these results do not make the drug less viable as these scars are rarely problematic so showing improvement to any degree of statistical significance would be difficult.

Demonstrating improvement in more difficult wounds such as those following sternotomy would go a long way to showing the efficacy of this drug and to justifying the cost to patients and insurance companies.