Dare Bioscience’s (NASDAQ:DARE) DARE-VVA1, a proprietary formulation of tamoxifen designed for vaginal delivery, showed significant improvements in reducing vaginal pH and dryness in patients with vulvar and vaginal atrophy (VVA), without significant systemic tamoxifen absorption.
The study’s findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal, Clinical and Experimental Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Historically, estrogen-based drugs have been used to treat VVA, however these may be contraindicated in patients with a history of hormone receptor positive breast cancer.
Tamoxifen, an estrogen antagonist, is commonly used to treat breast cancer. For reasons that are unclear, tamoxifen exerts an estrogen-like response in other tissues, suggesting DARE-VVA1 could be a new, non-estrogen-based treatment approach for VVA.
