Hair Loss Company Stocks

Hair Loss Companies and their Stock Prices

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I have updated this post several times since first publishing it in 2018. Scroll to the bottom half for all the recent updates on hair loss company stocks since 2020.

However, this week there is a far bigger story and phenomenon at play. One that could have huge implications on the stock market, overall economy and power of the much maligned hedge funds and billionaire class. Will David at least permanently dent Goliath in this battle?

The rise of WSB and YOLO Meme Stock Investing in 2021

This week, the stock market has witnessed insanity in the form of GameStop (GME) and its short squeeze. Courtesy of Wallstreetbets (WSB) and the idea that you only live once (YOLO). i.e., do not trade and hope for 8 percent annual returns so as to retire in comfort in decades. I can see the logic in both ways of thinking and living one’s life.

Note that many of the small-scale traders on WSB have other far larger societal goals. They want to collaborate and hurt large billionaire investors and hedge funds who make money of shorting stocks. The latter often do so with ulterior methods and access to illegal insider information.

While I am not a day trader, I got back into the stock market in the middle of 2020 due to good buying opportunities. Once I made all my purchases, I was hoping not to check any of my balances for a year. At that point, I could sell some stocks and avoid high capital gains taxes.

However, this 2021 phenomena of massive-scale collaborative purchases by small-scale investors (via discussions on platforms such as Reddit, Robinhood and Stocktwits) has me hooked.

Even hair loss sufferer Elon Musk got into the GME frenzy via Gamestonk.

As did Chamath.

It seems like YOLO meme stocks are here to stay and the SEC cannot do much about this phenomenon for now. Edit: Looks like this could change as GME stock went up almost 150 percent today. Biden team monitoring. Also, a number of platforms limited trading in GME and other such stocks on January 28th. Robinhood got a beating for doing so in the media.

I do enjoy seeing some of the short-selling hedge funds being clobbered by a bunch of Redditors. But ultimately, I fear a whole bunch of young inexperienced investors losing all of their savings in this almost pyramid scheme type game.

Too bad our favorite micro-cap hair loss companies are not in the radar of these WSB fanatics/trail blazers. Social media has become a big deal in influencing stock prices of smaller-sized companies. Unfortunately, Replicel is not getting any respect and complained as such yesterday. Meanwhile,  Histogen’s stock price has almost doubled since the beginning of 2021.

Balding Investors Saving for Hair Cloning

Almost every week on this blog, at least one person discusses the stock prices of hair loss companies that are publicly traded. Same goes for our hair loss chat. Considering how expensive hair cloning  or hair multiplication will be (e.g., Dr. Takashi Tsuji and what could have been), many of  us will need to hit the jackpot.

I wanted to write this post for many years, but there were some issues that prevented me from doing so:

  • Is it worth covering companies such as Allergan, for whom hair loss related products represent a tiny fraction of overall revenues? i.e., unless they come out with a truly game-changing hair loss cure, their stock price will never be affected significantly by any new minor hair loss treatment product.
  • Does it make sense to include the numerous companies working on alopecia areata (AA) related treatments? The vast majority (over 95 percent) of hair loss patients suffer from androgenetic alopecia (AGA). A condition that is also known as male pattern baldness or female pattern hair loss.
  • What about pharmaceutical companies working on brand name or generic versions of existing products such as Finasteride, Dutasteride and Minoxidil?
  • How about manufacturers of products such as laser hair growth caps, combs and helmet devices? Or even hairpieces, shampoos, concealers and so on.
  • How about companies involved in the manufacturing of hair transplant related tools and devices? Especially hair transplant robots such as ARTAS?

For the time being, I am only including companies that are of most relevance to our ultimate goal of a hair loss cure. Perhaps I will modify this in future if a company develops a moderately effective hair loss product. Some currently privately-held companies (e.g., Samumed or Dr. Tsuji/RIKEN partners Kyocera and Organ Technologies) will be added to the below list if they go public.

It seems like we regularly see situations where a company makes a big positive announcement about its hair loss product development, only to see little change in its stock price movement. Or sometimes even an unexpected decline in its share price despite the good news. Finance and investing experts among this blog’s readers can try to explain such developments when they occur.

Hair Loss Company Stock Prices

Aclaris Therapeutics (ACRS) — Perhaps of most interest during the past year. Fast moving relatively new US-based company that is working on both AA and AGA treatments. 2020 Update: Not true anymore :-(

Allergan (AGN) — Working on a number of hair loss products such as Bimatoprost and Setipiprant. Hair loss segment accounts for a small portion of overall sales. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. 2020 Update: Allergan invested in several other new hair loss companies in 2019. More importantly, they invested in Stemson Therapeutics in 2020.

Cassiopea (SKIN:SW) — Its Breezula (formerly CB-03-01) product is causing some excitement in 2019 per one of my industry contacts. 2021 Update: Their closely related acne product Winlevi will be released in the US in 2021.

Conatus (CNAT) — A new entrant in 2020 after its merger with Histogen. Edit: Seems like Histogen (HSTO) is still also traded separately.

Follicum (FOLLI:SS) — Highly professional Swedish company, with its main area of focus being on its hair regrowth product. Follicum’s Phase 2 clinical trials will be completed in 2021.

L’Oreal (OR:PA) — World renowned cosmetics leader headquartered in France. They are working on 3D printed hair and grey hair reversal treatments.

PolarityTE (PTE) — Previous ticker was “COOL”. If their skin product succeeds, only a matter of time before this US-based company develops a hair loss product. Extremely fast moving new company with highly experienced and qualified key staff members. 2020 Update: PolarityTE common stock offering. Unfortunately, the stock price plummeted almost 50 percent today after that news.

PureTech Health (PRTC) — Although headquartered in the US, they are listed on the London Stock Exchange. Their hair loss segment is represented by Follica, which has been teasing us for over a decade. But is expected to commence Phase 3 trials in 2021.

RepliCel (REPCF) — A Canadian company that has been in the news in the hair loss world for a decade. Replicel’s drastically larger Japanese partner Shiseido (see below) is of much more interest to us when it comes to a hair loss treatment. However, for speculators and day traders, Replicel may be an interesting play.

Shiseido (SSDOY) — A Japanese cosmetics behemoth that is especially significant in Asia. Basic adenosine based adenovital shampoos and other related products represent a major portion of their overall sales. Besides working on a hair loss cure based on Replicel’s technology (with marketing rights in Asia), Shiseido also has its own highly experienced in-house hair loss research team.

Hair Loss Companies Stock Price Trend
Hair loss companies and their stock prices.

Disclaimer:

I am not a financial advisor or finance professional. As of the time of publishing this post, I do not own shares in any of the above companies.

Topical Finasteride, ALM12845, Almirall, Difa Cooper, Finjuve

Topical Finasteride from Almirall Finally Here

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Topical Finasteride
Topical Finasteride.

I have covered topical finasteride at least ten times on this blog. My original post on this subject got published in 2014, and is updated every year.

I have especially emphasized Polichem’s P-3074 (now Almirall’s ALM12845) hydroxypropyl chitosan (HPCH)-based topical finasteride. This product is now finally being released in the European Union countries. Note that besides chitosan, there are many other potential delivery systems for topical finasteride.

Unlike specialized topical finasteride products offered by local compounding pharmacies or hair clinics, Almirall’s ALM12845 has undergone rigorous three-phase clinical trials. For more information, see Phase 3 trial results of P-3074 as well as this 2015 encouraging update.

Update: March 21, 2023 — Boryung will launch Finjuve finasteride spray in South Korea on March 21. The company secured the exclusive rights for Finjuve Spray from Almirall (Spain) in January 2022.

Note: I am even more interested in topical Dutasteride for hair loss.

Will Topical Finasteride have Fewer Side Effects?

Due to some people getting persistent side effects from oral finasteride, the interest in topical finasteride is extremely high. While there are no guarantees when it comes to fewer side effects from topical finasteride, it is a virtual certainty that there will not be higher rates of side effects.

Speaking for myself, it does give me peace of mind to use something topically rather than ingesting something orally. Moreover, with the topical product, one can use a lot less than the recommended dosage. If you are only losing hair in the crown region, you might start by applying a bare minimum of the spray or lotion in that area.

This is a lot more desirable than ingesting a whole pill. Breaking tiny 1 mg finasteride (Propecia) pills into even smaller pieces and trying to distribute the resulting dosage evenly is not practical. Make sure to also read my post on finasteride and dutasteride dosage discussion.

Note that Hasson & Wong in Canada has been prescribing its own topical finasteride for a number of years, but they have not had to undertake any clinical trials. They use a local compounding pharmacy as well as Farmacia Parati (Italy) to make their product. In the past, they told me that the topical product has fewer side effects than the oral product.

A number of other hair transplant clinics nowadays offer proprietary combination topical products that contain both finasteride and minoxidil. Some doctors prefer oral finasteride to topical for generalized hair loss.

Serum, Plasma and Scalp DHT Level Reduction

Research on dihydrotestosterone (DHT) level reduction by topical finasteride shows varying results. This is obviously impacted by the type of compounded product being used, dosage amount and application frequency.

One study of P-3074 found scalp DHT levels declined by 70% with once a day application of 1 ml (2.275 mg) of P-3074 topical finasteride. By comparison, oral finasteride 0.5 mg/day reduces scalp DHT levels by around 50-70 percent (different results in different studies). However, the P-3074 study showed 50 percent scalp DHT reduction when using lower doses.

Serum DHT was reduced by 60 -70 % for the 1 ml dose of P-3074. Similar to what is seen with oral finasteride. But only 25 percent with the 100 and 200 μL doses; and around 45 percent with the 300 and 400 μL doses.

Interestingly, no relevant changes occurred in serum testosterone readings. By contrast, oral finasteride changes both testosterone and estrogen levels.

Almirall will release ALM12845 in Europe in 2021

A few months ago, I contacted Almirall and they told me that they would release their topical finasteride ALM12845 (or ALM-12845) in Western Europe in 2021. The release date would vary by country. No plans for selling in the US market.

One of this blog’s readers (“Paul”) e-mailed them after me, and he was given the more specific release date statement below:

“Without going beyond the limits of confidentiality, I can confirm you that we expect to launch topical Finasteride by the beginning of 2021 in Europe once the assessment by Health authorities is completed.”

Earlier today, reader “Lesley” made an important discovery. She posted this recent link from Gazzeta Ufficiale (Italy). It has the English translation of part of the content from this pdf. I will discuss the content in more detail further below.

Difa Cooper’s Caretopic Topical Finasteride

Per the above news, it seems like Italy based Difa Cooper (also known as Cantabria Labs Difa Cooper) will produce Almirall’s ALM12845. Per “Lesley”, they will only market it in France and Germany. I cannot tell for sure, but makes sense per below image.

In January 2020, Almirall announced that ALM12845 no longer fits its strategic portfolio. At the time, the company had started looking for a partner to out-license the product. The first partner is now likely Difa Cooper. I am guessing that they will need more partners in other European countries.

Per the earlier mentioned Gazzeta link:

  • The topical finasteride (brand name “Caretopic“) will be in “cutaneous spray, solution” form.
  • Each ml of the solution will contain 2.275 mg of finasteride. Each bottle will contain 18 ml.
  • Each dispersion (spray) amounts to 50 μl, which contains 114 micrograms of finasteride.
Almirall Topical Finasteride (Difa Cooper).
Almirall’s topical finasteride ALM12845 will be sold by Difa Cooper (brand name “Caretopic”).

Finjuve

In November 2021, Almirall and Hikma Pharmaceutical entered into an exclusive licensing agreement. This will allow Himka to commercialize and market Almirall’s topical finasteride via the FinjuveTM brand in certain Middle East and North Africa (MENA) markets. In January 2022, Boryung Pharmaceutical signed a contract with Almirall to sell Finjuve spray-type topical finasteride in South Korea.

Finjuve Topical Finasteride Spray
Finjuve Topical Finasteride Spray from Almirall.

Finjuve is a finasteride spray that is approved in Italy, Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia. Interestingly, Finjuve is meant to be applied to the scalp through a cone. This prevents the spray produce from spreading outside the treatment area, and improves overall safety.

Almirall CEO Interview

There is a new November 2021 interview of Almirall CEO Gianfranco Nazzi. In regards to their topical Finasteride, Mr. Nazzi states as follows (slightly modified quote):

“It is a legacy Polichem product. We have not launched it, but are licensing it out. We do see some small incoming milestone income for this topical Finasteride from Eastern Europe and other countries within Europe. But is not going to be a significant mover of the company. We’re just trying to maximize the value we can get out of it.”