Monthly Archives: November 2015

Polichem, Antonella Tosti, P-3074, Topical Finasteride

Encouraging Update on Polichem’s P-3074

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In my popular post from last year regarding topical finasteride, I discussed Polichem’s P-3074 product. P-3074 is “vehicled” in Hydroxypropyl-Chitosan (HPCH) per the latest announcements. Past references state that it uses hydroxypropyl-chitosan (HPCH) as the “film-forming agent”.

Polichem: P-3074 Topical Finasteride Update

At this year’s just completed World Congress for Hair Research in Miami, one of the presentations pertained to this very product. The key quote from the abstract book:

“A pharmacokinetic phase I study, tested P-3074 b.i.d. [=twice per day] vs oral finasteride 1 mg o.d. [=once per day], revealing a finasteride systemic exposure 15 times lower in the topical formulation. A pharmacodynamic study compared P-3074 b.i.d. and o.d. vs oral finasteride 1 mg o.d. in DHT inhibition in scalp (vertex) and in serum. The results showed comparable serum/scalp DHT inhibitions across formulations, suggesting that the achievement of comparable levels of DHT inhibition vs the oral form could be attained by a lower dose of P-3074.”

My note: Their older report from the 7th World Congress for Hair Research from two years ago stated that the P-3074 product is composed of 0.25% finasteride. So the twice per day dose equals 0.50% per day. This is apparently lower than 1 mg/day oral finasteride per the implication of the last sentence in the above paragraph.

My note: They also state in the most recent abstract that at lower doses of 200 mcL, scalp DHT reduction remains unchanged. However, serum DHT reduction was much lower, potentially even further limiting systemic absorption. So 200mcL< 0.50% < 1mg. Currently, P-3074 is in Phase III clinical trials in Europe.

I called my local compounding pharmacy a few months ago to inquire about them making topical finasteride for me. They told me that while they do make topical finasteride in gel form, they only get several such requests each year. Moreover, at around $100 per month, it is much more expensive than the cost of generic oral finasteride.

What I am really looking forward to is a topical dutasteride product with very low systemic absorption. The results from oral dutasteride are clearly superior to those from oral finasteride. Make sure to read the comments to my dutasteride (Avodart) for hair loss user experiences post.

Unfortunately, oral dutasteride also results in significantly higher rates of side effects. We really need a topical version of dutasteride asap. Perhaps this will only happen after dutasteride is officially approved to treat hair loss.

Addendum

Dr. Antonella Tosti is listed as a consultant to both Polichem and Kythera in the abstract I mentioned earlier.

Histogen, Replicel, World Congress for Hair Research

Updates from the 2015 WCHR and Related News

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The 9th World Congress for Hair Research just ended in Miami and there is a surprising lack of online publicly available information regarding key developments. Some companies often publish their presentations on their websites several days after the end of such conferences, so I will update this post in the next week as new information comes out.

2015 Word Congress for Hair Research (WCHR) Updates

— Update: 9th World Conference for Hair Research abstracts now available online.

— Update: Below is the unbelievable before and after image from Histogen’s Dr. Gail Naughton’s presentation that everyone is talking about (Edit: Image was later removed from source site).

— Update: Hellouser’s Youtube channel.

— Update: Spencer Kobren’s interview with Histogen’s Dr. Gail Naughton, including all her slides. Very encouraging and an absolute must see.

— Update: Spencer Kobren’s interview with Replicel’s Lee Buckler.

— The best place to get updates remains Hellouser’s thread on the HLT forums. He is apparently back in Canada and fatigued at present, but will slowly update that thread (or perhaps create new threads on different companies in that portion of the HLT forums). He is going to load his audio files somewhere outside the forums too.

— Samumed came out yet another press release today, summarizing its presentation at the Miami Congress. I am getting more optimistic about the company’s unique SM04554 topical product that tackles hair loss via the Wnt pathway. At present, the company has only concluded that the product is very safe based on its recently completed 300 person trial (interestingly, one of the co-organizers of the 2015 WCHR, Dr. WIlma Bergfeld, was involved in this trial via the Cleveland center).

Actual data on new hair growth will come out as it becomes available, which I am hoping will be in early 2016. The conclusion of the press release is encouraging, even if not pertaining to humans: “SM04554 has been shown to generate new hair follicles and increase hair count in multiple animal models.” At the same time, we have to be wary from past experiences that all these press releases could very well be just a means to attract publicity and funding. The final product could at best always end up being no better than Rogaine.

— I am disappointed that the 2015 WCHR Twitter account has been completely silent during and after the Congress. It is unlikely that they will publish anything this week either, but maybe it is still worth keeping an eye on that account before it ends in Twitter purgatory. Maybe “Helllouser” should get the wwww.twitter.com/2016WCHR account now while no-one has it and then tell the Japanese organizers of next year’s Congress that he will do a much better job of updating it?

— I discussed Allergan twice in this blog recently (see here and here) and it seems like the company is now definitely merging with Pfizer. Together, the new entity will be by far the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. Too early to tell how if at all this will impact the release of Allergan’s Bimatoprost and Setipiprant drugs to treat hair loss.

— Replicel usually publishes its latest presentation on its website and announces them via its Twitter account.

— Histogen remains the big mystery. A few months ago, most people had given up on it. Then things changed and I wrote this post. Now “Hellouser” is saying that he was very impressed with their presentation. I am really looking forward to his interview with CEO Gail Naughton.