Monthly Archives: October 2019

Follicum, Cassiopea

Follicum and Cassiopea Updates

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I have covered both Follicum and Cassiopea numerous times on this blog in the past. Both companies just provided important new updates.

Follicum is based in Sweden and has done a stellar job in updating us regularly when it comes to the company’s peptide-based FOL-005 topical hair loss product. Projected release date: Probably 2022.

Cassiopea is based in Italy. Last year I mentioned how several very well known insiders of the hair loss industry have emailed me about their excitement in regards to Cassiopea’s Breezula topical antiandrogen product. Projected release date: Officially listed on their site as 2022.

Follicum Update

Follicum provided us with two updates this week.

  • The first was an important February 4th press release. In animal model in vivo testing, Follicum’s FOL-005 hair loss product was as successful as Minoxidil 5% in growing new hair. Moreover, while the latter must be used twice per day, FOL-005 need only be applied once per day.

Since results were dose dependent, I am hopeful that the company will test higher doses in future that may give even better new hair growth results. Considering that to-date, only two products (Finasteride and Minoxidil) have ever been officially approved to treat male pattern hair loss, this development is groundbreaking if true.

  • On February 9th, BioStock magazine published an interview with Follicum’s Research & Development director Maria Ekblad. Original Swedish version here. It seems like the latest version of FOL-005 that is being tested is a new formulation.

One interesting point made was that Follicum only managed to test the product for 3-month results in humans in recently completed Phase IIa trials. Ms. Ekblad hopes that longer-term usage will give even better results.

Follicum has historically worked with researchers at Charité Hospital (Berlin, Germany) and Bioskin (Hamburg, Germany). In late 2018, the company announced that they were now also working with the Centre for Skin Sciences at the University of Bradford (UK).

I would be very surprised if this once-a-day home use FOL-005 cream-like product ends up being less effective than Minoxidil. Unfortunately, it will probably not be released till 2021 at the earliest.

Update: Follicum has entered into a collaboration with Bioglan to make their FOL-005 hair loss topical cream. Follicum is also on target to get final US patent approval soon that will grant rights through 2032.

Cassiopea Summarizes 2018

Yesterday, Cassiopea (Italy) provided an update of its 2018 results.

Both the company’s hair loss product (Breezula) and acne product (Winlevi) are based on a synthetic antiandrogen called Clascoterone. Six-month interim Phase II results for Breezula® used in solution form in men with androgenic alopecia demonstrated statistically significant improvement in:

  1. Target Area Hair Count (TAHC)
  2. Hair Growth Assessment (HGA)

Nothing too meaningful as yet, but: there is excitement in the hair loss world about this product due to some results that were presented by Cassiopea at a conference in 2018. I cannot divulge my sources.

I would be surprised if Breezula does not provide significantly superior results to Spironolactone (another antiandrogen) in regrowing hair. Otherwise, it would not be worth pursuing.

Moreover, this product will be in topical form, and most likely result in minimal side effects. Most oral antiandrogens have significant side effects.