Monthly Archives: May 2016

Craig Ziering, Histogen

Histogen Responds to Blog Reader Comments

182 Comments

Someone from Histogen e-mailed me yesterday after reading the reader comments to my last post.  I will not post this person’s name, exact job title or e-mail address here since some of this blog’s readers are nutjobs who will probably stalk the said person!  The e-mail contents, however, are important and pasted below:

Dear Admin,

Thank you for mentioning Histogen and HSC on your hair loss blog. We appreciate your consideration of our product.  I visited your blog today and noticed that there was some confusion about the trial photos included in Dr. Gail Naughton’s Stem Cell Summit presentation.  I was hoping to clear this up with you and that you could disseminate the information to your readers.

3 clinical studies of HSC have been completed: a Pilot study, Phase I/II study, and a Physician Sponsored study with Dr. Ziering.  As some of your readers pointed out, the photos from the Pilot study are from 2009.  However, the photos from Phase I/II and Dr. Ziering’s study are more recent.  In fact some of the photos from Dr. Ziering’s study were introduced for the first time at the 2016 Stem Cell Summit in Boston.  Histogen continues to be focused on developing this revolutionary new treatment and looks forward to beginning the next stages of clinical trials.

Best Regards.

It would be great if readers who post comments to this blog post maintain some civility in case this Histogen employee who e-mailed me comes back to read the comments.  Pertinent questions might get answered if we are lucky.

Follica, Gail Naughton, Histogen, PureTech Health

Follica and Histogen Updates

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I was not planning to write a new post for several days, but there have been two important developments that are worth discussing now.  I will update this post in more detail later if necessary.

Follica and Histogen Updates

  • First, Histogen has finally published a summary of its presentation at the recent Stem Cell Summit in Boston that I discussed before. I e-mailed the company and to my surprise, they sent me a pdf of their presentation that was made by CEO Dr. Gail Naughton.
  • Second, if you recall, a month ago I wrote a post on Follica’s surprising return from being taken as almost dead by many people. That post happened due to HLT forum member Xaser94’s great research, which he outlined in his now very popular thread. Several days ago, forum member “Noisette” made an interesting post in that same thread (see page 8) with a link to a 271 page prospectus document from PureTech Health (majority owner of Follica) from June 2015.

There is a goldmine of information in there with some superb images. The main Follica section starts on page 101. Encouraging quote:

“Through the administration of Follica’s procedure by a trained clinician and use of its at home  ‘‘connected’’ device (meaning it is coupled with a digital service such as a companion smart- phone application) the company seeks, in the near-term, to significantly improve the treatment expectations and satisfaction of hair loss patients by providing a more effective alternative to current FDA-approved drugs.“

I also want to give kudos to Mike, who e-mailed me some useful information on this development. This is the same Mike that I discussed in my Follica post from a month ago. This time, I will only paste part of his e-mail:

“This section stands out, and there are many standouts: 

Follica’s patented platform employs a technique called targeted cutaneous perturbation (or TCP) to stimulate the growth of new follicles, followed by treatment with: (i) select, approved drugs indicated to be synergistic in maximising the quantity, quality and persistence of new hair, or in other cases (ii) new chemical entities that modulate pathways involved in the development of the hair follicle.

It’s the new chemical entities that interests me. Could there be a treatment and then an upgrade treatment further down the line? A partnership with another company perhaps? Maybe one that’s related to a certain Neal Walker?”

In seems like in the past month, most of my posts have been heavily influenced by commentators on this blog, e-mailers, hair loss forum posters and even one hair loss chat participant on this site.