Pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly: Drug against circular hair loss approved in the USA

In the United States, the first systemic drug against patchy hair loss (alopecia areata) has been approved.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Eli Lilly's Olumiant.

It is the first ever in the US for a hair loss drug that works on the entire body.

The condition, which often manifests as patchy baldness, affects more than 300,000 people in the United States each year, the FDA said in its release.

The now-approved tablets have been tested for more than six months in two studies involving patients who have lost at least 50 percent of their hair, the FDA wrote.

The measure of the effectiveness of the drug was the number of patients who had regained at least 80 percent of their hair coverage in the 36th week.