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I have had acne for 4 years straight and it has been getting worse and worse, ever since.

I've tried every trick in the book:

  • Tea tree oil
  • Benzoyl Peroxide
  • Retin A (0.025%; 0.05%; 0.1%)
  • Salicylic Acid
  • Minocyline (Oral)

My skin never gets better.

I feel as if it's not my diet since, I keep a healthy diet, with low fat intake.

Accutane is the only thing left, but my insurance has denied me it on the basis that I was "non-compliant".

Is there any other alternative to Accutane, that's just as effective?

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  • Non-compliant with what?
    – Carey Gregory ♦
    Nov 20, 2015 at 13:42
  • I don't know about just as effective(which is why this is a comment and not an answer), but have you tried azelaic acid? It's traditionally used for rosacea but also can work as a treatment for acne rosacea, which can appear very similar to acne vulgaris. If you actually have acne rosacea and not acne vulgaris, it may work for you. It's a prescription drug(brand name Finacea or Skinoren) but is less expensive than accutane in the short-term so your insurance might help pay for it. Since it is OTC in other countries, you may be able to purchase it from abroad(at least if you are in the USA).
    – Ten Bitcomb
    Nov 21, 2015 at 0:14
  • Non-compliant with taking the minocycline, my doctor now gave me cefadroxil, clindamycin, benzoyl peroxide "You mix the clindamycin and benzoyl peroxide", and then at night i put on tretonoin
    – David Morales
    Nov 21, 2015 at 0:18
  • @DavidMorales "effectiveness" is hard to measure and begins to sound like a request for personal diagnosis. If you could reword your question to ask for something specific, then maybe we'd be able to help.
    – Dave Liu
    Nov 24, 2015 at 3:42
  • Yeah sorry David, the medicine they perscibed works great, any chance that i could have built up a resistance up before and now its gone?
    – David Morales
    Nov 25, 2015 at 14:27

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In October 2018, the FDA approved Sarecycline (trade name Seysara; development code WC-3035) for the treatment of moderate to severe acne vulgaris.[1]

As of 30 August 2018, a potential acne vaccine just passed an important early test.

An acne vaccine sounds too good to be true. One jab, and no more aggressive pimples making your face look like a pizza and damaging your self esteem.

But researchers just got one step closer to that goal, discovering that an inflammation-triggering toxin called CAMP can be decreased by applying very specific antibodies – in mice at least.

Actually turning those antibodies into a human vaccine will be complicated, but at least now we have an idea of what could work.

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