I first covered the groundbreaking work of Sanford Burnham’s Dr. Alexey Terskikh in 2015. Two years later, I interviewed Dr. Terskikh with the help of reader questions. It was a lengthy and highly interesting question and answer session. The doctor’s main issue at the time was funding.
A few months ago, Dr. Teskikh provided an excellent update on his hair loss research. Key quote from that interview:
“Instead of embryonic stem cells, which are difficult to obtain, our method now uses induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), which are derived from a simple blood draw or skin sample. iPSCs allow us to create an unlimited supply of cells to grow hair. Not having enough hair is one reason current transplants don’t work, so this is a critical advance….We’ve found a solution—3D biodegradable scaffolds—and partnered with leading scientists in the field to advance our project. The scaffold allows us to control the number of cells transplanted, their direction and where they are placed.”
Dr. Terskikh also said that as of 2018, he had formed a company to move this research and technology forward. He did not name the company or the “great team” of experts that he had assembled.
Stemson Therapeutics
Earlier today, a reader by the name of “Gabriel” sent me a Tweet (now removed, but I pasted the content below) from three weeks ago. It was missed by most people.
“Great breakfast meeting at @EstanciaLaJolla with hair restoration surgery colleague Dr Alan Bauman from Boca Raton. Excited to be the medical directors for Stemson Therapeutics, a new biotech company here in La Jolla developing groundbreaking permanent solutions for hair loss.”
— Dr. Richard Chaffoo
No mention of Dr. Alexey Terskikh in there, but….
It seems like Stemson Therapeutics LLC was registered in California in 2017 by Dr. Terskikh! Also, Dr. Terskikh is based in La Jolla (San Diego), and the Tweet above also mentions La Jolla.
Note that there is also a Stemson Therapeutics Corporation that is involved in the hair growth sector.
This looks like excellent news, even if it may take a few years before fruition.
Unless Trump issues an executive order that Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials are unnecessary :-)
Although, in this case, if the biological material and lab processes are entirely autologous… maybe portions of human trials can be rushed or skipped?
Amazing news and…
https://www.gov-online.go.jp/eng/publicity/book/hlj/html/201810/201810_10_en.html
Tsuji is coming…
The hair party will start soon my friends
Thanks. Tsuji is still my biggest hope…glad they keep verifying 2020 goal:-))
Another player in the cloning field; http://www.btechlaboratories.com/. Supposedly initiating clinic trials in 2019 (see Fuji’s post).
It would be very interesting to know Riken/Govt’s position on the eligibility of non-Japanese visitors for treatment from 2020 on (assuming all goes perfectly). Think about the implications of that question, one way or the other.
Also, another thing that I wonder about – I understand it takes a full day to transplant 4K follicles traditionally, so what time-frame would, say, 40K follicles require to graft I wonder? … Wouldn’t it be nice if there was some kind of device that could do ten at a time haha… We can only speculate…
Oh and massive kudos to admin for all your calm and balanced diligence. When the cure comes, may you be spirited above the heads of the throng – crowd-surfing style – and delivered to the top of the queue, to thunderous applause.
Follicium results coming in the coming 2-3 days btw! exciting times
Samumed just announced in its newsletter that it has initiated the Phase III clinical trial of its Androgenetic Alopecia agent outside the U.S. Unfortunately they haven’t published this news on their website’s news feed yet, it’s just in an email. Good news.
News from Btech laboratories:
the human trails will start in February 2019.
The goals are
1. The unlimited supply of personalized autologous transplantable hair follicles.
2. The injection of engineered hairfollicle activating DPSC/IPSC into the scalp – if the hairfollicle transplantations is not possible because of certain pathogenic circumstances.
Heinrich Kunz
CEO
Maybe an interview with the CEO soon?
https://www.stemcures.com/simplified-fda-guidelines-stem-cell-treatment-back-pain-joint-pain/
Seems might not need full on clinical trials for autologous cells…fits with what he said about speaking to FDA in about 2 yrs, basically when they have proven no tumour growth in animal model
@lordcheselin
where did you get february 2019, as fuji’s article mentions autumn 2019?
I think the industry is much more geared towards a regenerative ‘cure’ then and side free maintenance product. It makes more sense financially. Although Breezula looks amazing but we still don’t know how long it will be effective. Would love to get my hands on CB now. If anyone knows how to please do get in contact. Tsuji – GODSPEED.
Sm announced they started phase 3 trials outside the U.S
GO YOU CRAZY GO
October 2018
Androgenetic Alopecia (AGA) Program Update
• We have initiated our phase 3 clinical trial (outside the US)
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) Program Update
• We have initiated our phase 1 clinical trial (outside the US)
Corporate News
• We have hired the following senior positions:
• Steven Cha, VP Clinical Development Oncology
• Cristina Damatarca, VP Drug Safety & Pharmacovigilance
© 2018 Samumed, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
sorry just saw it posted above
got a little excited
http://follicum.com/wp-content/uploads/181031-follicum-pm-phase-iia-study-results-eng.pdf
New Follicum press release
Haironmykeyboard, well said!
What a good day! :-) … Samumed starting Phase 3 and Follicum Phase 2b soon. … Would be nice to see results from both.
we saw in the growth phase supports the hypothesis that FOL-005 can “awaken” dormant hair follicles.
Wow lots of movement here. Very interested in the lajolla autologous hair cloning. If they can pull that off with an fda release by 2021 I will be very impressed. Are they claiming unlimited hair growth 100k hairs if I wanted?
Dr Alan J. Bauman is a bit of a charlatan or an aggressive “marketer”. He even was “marketing the Zirona weight loss laser that really didn’t work, that’s why it was short lived and you don’t see advertised it anymore. As an industry “key opinion leader’ you’d expect him to keep focused on hairloss as opposed to anything that generates revenue. As far as Dr. Richard Chaffoo, as a fellow San Diegan, he’s out there pushing Neo Graft, substandard, outdated technology. Hopefully Stemson made the right choice with these two characters.
If Shiseido/Replicel post proper results this month, the funding for these other less-favourable projects may suddenly dry up. No other player has posted phase 1 results that come close and phase 2 results are due in shortly.
@lordcheselin,
Excellent find and work! Very exciting news! Being greatly overlooked, this could be the one guys, Tsuji but much closer to home for US and Europeans.
Anyone know why Samumed would initiate their phase 3 outside the US? Will it affect FDA approval?
Beyond hair, organ cloning is almost immortality and thats pretty damn good enough for me.
if this works and gets approved, it will really be the cure for hair loss, how long do u guyes think it will take before it will be available?
@mike: good question.
Would be great news for so many people!