Aneira Pharma gets $25 million from Valkyrie Group

A new hair loss company named Aneira Pharma has come to my attention thanks to reader “James”.

Aneira PharmaSeveral days ago, it was announced that Valkyrie Group will invest $25 million in Aneira Pharma. This is a substantial amount of money to invest in a hair loss startup. For comparison, RIKEN is only asking for $4.8 million and has already been conducting hair loss research for several decades.

Update: Valkyrie’s CEO answered some questions in the comments.

Valkyrie’s news page also has this story. The before and after photos on Aneira’s site are very impressive for a topical hair loss product. Besides increased hair growth, the topical also darkens hair. The current name for this product is ANR-001. Aneira has yet to start Phase 1 clinical trials in humans. However, based on the likely already-in-use ingredients in its hair loss product, I am hoping that future trials can proceed fast.

Aneira Pharma’s Hair Loss Patent

One of the members of our hair loss chat found the likely patent behind Aneira Pharma’s hair loss product. The inventor, John Wurst, is also Aneira’s founder, president and CEO. The patent was published in February 2021.

Among the extensive list of ingredients listed in the patent, the most frequently mentioned ones that will likely be in the product include:

  • Prostaglandin analogues, with Latanoprost being a certainty. Also possibly included will be Travoprost. Make sure to see my past posts on Bimatoprost, which caused a lot of excitement in the hair loss world a few years ago. Latanoprost and Travoprost are examples of prostaglandin F2α analogs. Bimatoprost is a prostamide F2α analog. All three of these products are used to treat glaucoma and reduce pressure in the eye. Bimatoprost (via the brand Latisse) has also been widely used in the cosmetic world to make eyelashes grow longer. Interestingly, John Wurst served as lead patent attorney for Latisse and other hair growth products in the past.
Latanoprost for Hair Growth
Latanoprost for hair loss presentation at the EHRS Conference in 2018.
  • Cyclosporine. See my past posts on Cyclosporine as well as on WAY-316606. A company named Rivertown Therapeutics was also using Cyclosporine in its hair loss product, but ended up shutting down last year.
  • Minoxidil. See my post on how Minoxidil works to treat hair loss. As of 2021, Minoxidil is still one of only two drugs ever approved by the US FDA to treat male and female pattern hair loss. With the other being Finasteride.

Interestingly, Aneira’s product will also increase the hair’s melanin content.

The word “Finasteride” also makes a number of appearances in the earlier mentioned patent. I hope they add topical finasteride into the mix too.

60 thoughts on “Aneira Pharma gets $25 million from Valkyrie Group”

  1. Another San Diego company! what can I say … looks like a trend to me … who knows what’s really behind all these companies …

  2. Omg I can’t believe what I am seeing with this company. Actual before and after pics without photoshops, combovers, concealers, lighting games etc. I am actually shocked it took a company 20 years to f%^&ing do it right. The first guy got great results and the women results were great too. See is it that hard to ask….a treatment that produces visible results without having to zoom in to the pic to find 4 new hairs. I hope this company fast tracks through the trials and releases it. Not surprised they got 25M investment. Sht it actually works. My concern is a competitor will buy them out or shut them down.

    1. Bro i am on track again, after lowering the dose for 2 weeks and stopping finasteride for another 2 weeks i became energetic with night and morning woods and some daily woods, i knew that i got side effects, now i will try to start every other day with before and after blood test analysis.

  3. I’d love for them to further investigate why it’s making hair darker. I’d use it on my head for regrowth and on my facial hair to flush all the white away.

  4. Agree. Fingers crossed, ANR-001 makes it to market (world-wide) before little rocket-man blows us all to bits in the next decade or two?! Hopefully it ‘actually’ works, and doesn’t just come in a sh*tty little 30ml bottle, that’s only available online-and costs the earth-including endless international shipping?! However, those pics do look impressive. (Thank god there are no mice pics too)!

  5. If it uses finistride. Well we are back to square one. Finistride & minoxidil already produce such results.

  6. Great find! That set of pics looks promising. I don’t doubt that this appears to be a nice step forward although I wonder how consistent the results will be. The resume of the founders and the large investment they have attracted certainly indicate that this is a real possibility!

  7. I’m curious about topical fin and I see you can get it easier now but I’m sensitive to sides so it’s not worth the risk to me unfortunately.

  8. Follow up…has anyone experienced sides on .10 topical fin? It seems like it would go systemic anyway by a lot of published pieces. When I originally tried fin, I cut the 1.25 tablets into quarters and still got sides so I doubt it would be an option for me.

  9. First pics are positive. Second and their subjects are meh. Esp the last guy – didn’t work so well on him for some reason.

    And it’s only the crown I take it? That’s all the pics show. Decent but still not great, imo. And not sure why everything focused on the back or top of the head, as if the front doesn’t exist. Weird. So the top of your head is thick but you have a 9 inch forehead.

  10. This thing looks serious, hybrid approach and known compounds … This is a good idea overall, pretty much what they’re doing with covid-19, using already FDA approved components and mixing them up.

  11. It seems it stops at 90/100 days in the pics. Curious to see what happens at the six month mark, or even a year (unless what they’re showing is the extent of it). If growth continues, it could be really good – even great. We just need more data. Trials should be interesting. I’ll be curious to see what side effects, if any, pop up.

  12. The funding and founder resumes lend a lot of credibility but has anyone wondered how the first guys new hair seems so much longer than hair would normally grow in 60 days?

  13. The results are not that good they all had hair before this and i don’t see a dramatic result. wake me up when its a norwood 7 to nw 1.

  14. A few comments.
    1. I was first patient to use the product in early pre trials.
    2. We invested the $25M to get the product through clinical trials.
    3. The team and science is incredible and pushing it hard to get it to market.
    4. I’ve invested with this group in another product offering. They’re incredible.

      1. I’m fully confident in the team and science. It’s likely we will inject another $50m-$100m at the point of commercialization.

        1. Mr Swenson, nice to see you using this platform to communicate. As Admin linked, what are your thoughts surrounding hair multiplication (i.e Riken)? What are some considerations your group what have to make prior to investing? I’m a general sense the potential seems massive.

  15. @ Chad Swensen what is the Pipeline? When do you expect to launch? Will you show a Pipeline on the website?

    1. Maybe admin could arrange an interview with Mr. Swensen? I think we’d all be interested in what he has to say about this!

    2. We’ll share more regarding the pipeline in the few weeks. In terms of timing we hope to complete Phase 2A prior to the end of the year. The team is very seasoned in terms of patent strategy and FDA trials.

      The primary patent was approved by the patent & trade office recently and Aneira should be receiving their patent number shortly.

      1. Hi Chad,

        I have some questions, does the formulation have to be used everyday twice a day, and if you stop taking it will u lose all progress and how quickly. Will this help high norwoods such as norwood 7 get back most or all of their hair back. I look very forward to this treatment, especially if this helps very high norwood people.

  16. Lots of questions but cool he came on and provided some info. I’m sure the rest of our questions will be answered in time. At least something is coming. Will it be as good as we want it to be? Time will tell. It’s unlikely it’ll grow new hair but still. Better than what’s available now. Seems like it’s being fast tracked too, to the extent possible at least.

  17. Am I missing something. If it contains finasteride and minoxidil, or even just minoxidil, where’s the proof this concoction is actually any better than current treatments, as some lucky few get these kind of results on current treatments.

    1. Are you serious? I don’t think it will. If Follica has taken this long I don’t think this will go through clinical trials quickly it will take years.

      1. Nice to see you don’t limit your negativity to just one site, but spread it all over. That’s generous of you.

  18. Topical bimatoprost, finasteride, and dutasteride in liposomal formulations are already manufactured by Sapphire Healthcare Inc.’s Follics and Regrowth Labs product lines.

    https://www.sapphirehealthusa.com

    I just don’t understand why they don’t register themselves as a compounding pharmacy in the U.S., so then healthcare providers can write prescriptions for their products.

    Is Yoda still frequenting this site? I have some questions for him.

  19. For anyone looking for a nearer term possible treatment offering at least some noticeable degree of improvement, I don’t know how you couldn’t be excited about this possibility coming completely out of the blue. Yes, it appears to be a cocktail of components that aren’t newly developed molecules, but $25 million dollars from an experienced team, including a partner who has trialed it and knows the nuances of the science behind it, tells me this has a reasonable probability of being a exciting step forward.

    1. I agree this is exciting. It seems like the next few years will hopefully offer some alternatives/additions to the big 4.

      1. I took a look at the Valkyrie Group website and there is a photo of Chad. He appears to have a great head of hair although you can’t see the crown. I am guessing most of this is natural and isn’t from Aneira’s treatment, or maybe that is an old photo, so I will be curious to see what his experience was.

        1. You never know. Man’s hair could have been thinning as hell but there are ways to hide it. Even hair fibers can give you natural look for such a photo.

        2. I’d also, once trials start and/or end, like to see more than three individuals. The first one looks great – the last one I don’t see terrific growth or change, really. And I imagine they’re showing their best photos/subjects. I’m sure everyone is different, just like the products on the market now (some benefits greatly and some not so much).

  20. Hi guys,

    Anyone know something about Follica? Has they start Phase 3 already?

    I think Samumed, Breezula and Follica are gonna be the next 3 coming to help, specially Breezula and Follica I think.

  21. As far as I know … some of these San Diego companies already offer their treatments to those who live nearby, I don’t know under what terms and conditions … but that’s what I’ve heard.

  22. I second admin here on “For comparison, RIKEN is only asking for $4.8 million and has already been conducting hair loss research for several decades”

    Oh well beggars can’t be choosers. I’d buy it.

  23. To think that a year ago, after reading about this startup here, I had high hopes for these guys.

    A year later, they still say this on their site: “Aneira has raised $25 million dollars and expects to begin phase I/IIa clinical trials in the first half of 2021.”

    WTF have they been doing the past year?

  24. 3 years later, still no sign of a phase 1. It sounds suspicious because if it was as good as the pictures suggest, investors would quickly and massively support the company to rush trials.

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