Dr. Christine Léauté Labrèze to receive the Eugene Van Scott Award for Innovative Therapy of the Skin and Phillip Frost

The Eugene Van Scott Award for Innovative Therapy of the Skin and Phillip Frost Leadership lecture created in 2007 was presented to Christine Léauté Labrèze (Dermatologist - Bordeaux University Hospital Center – France) this year. This award is granted for her significant contribution toward the treatment of Infantile Hemangioma.

 

Image

I am very touched and happy to receive this award. It rewards multi-year teamwork and illustrates the success of an original public-private partnership, resulting in better therapeutic management of patients with severe infantile hemangiomas. Dr Christine Léauté Labrèze, Dermatologist

About Christine Léauté Labrèze’s serendipitous discovery

The positive effect of Propranolol, the latest molecule indicated in the management of infantile hemangioma was discovered by Dr. Christine Léauté Labrèze, Dermatologist at Bordeaux University Hospital Center. In 2007, a 3-month old newborn was brought to the pediatric dermatology department of Bordeaux University Hospital Center for a significant hemangioma blocking the airways in the nose. A few days after the start of treatment, the child developed a myocardiopathy associated with the drug. The cardiologist then instituted a classic treatment used in cardiology to address this cardiac pathology. Against all odds, Christine Léauté-Labrèze, observed a shrinkage of the hemangioma which ended up disappearing within a few weeks. The effect previously observed with this drug was confirmed in another case, a patient resistant to conventional treatments. The team then decided to patent this discovery and to publish the results in the form of a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). In order to promote its research efforts and allow every patient in need to benefit from this discovery, the University of Bordeaux and the CHU of Bordeaux (thanks to Aquitaine Valo*) worked with Pierre Fabre Dermatologie to perfect, develop, test and manufacture a formula and a pharmaceutical form of this drug suited for the treatment of infantile hemangioma and subject to the approval of the health authorities (FDA, EMA).

*The teams at Aquitaine Valo, which became Aquitaine Science Transfert in 2012, a subsidiary for the promotion of research establishments in the Aquitaine region, made it possible for a scientific success to become a success on the market.

Image