Category Archives: Follicum

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.

Follicum, FOL-005, Samumed

A Truly Outstanding Week in Hair

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As if my last post on Dr. Terskikh’s progress and new company was not enough, three other new developments occurred last week that were extremely encouraging.

Follicum Positive Phase IIa Results

“The clear effect we saw in the growth phase supports the hypothesis that FOL-005 can “awaken” dormant hair follicles.”

I have mentioned Sweden-based Follicum numerous times in the past (see all Follicum past posts). Of the 50 plus companies that I have covered on this blog in the past five years, Follicum has been the most professional in my opinion.

This week, the company announced Phase IIa trial results.

Also, CEO Jan Alenfall gave a much more detailed interview discussing these results.

The quote that I posted above in red is the best part of these results. So now we have yet more evidence that long-lost miniaturized “dead” hair can be reawakened.

There are some issues regarding appropriate dosage levels. Follicum plans to test higher dosages in the next phase of trials. In these Phase IIa results, the highest dose resulted in an 11% median increase in the number of hair follicles in growth phase.

Maintenance of existing hair and an 11% increase in new hair would be amazing considering that this FOL-005 product did not cause any side effects (all too common with Finasteride and Dutasteride). Here’s to hoping for even better results with higher doses.

Samumed Initates Phase 3 Trials

In its latest monthly newsletter, Samumed announced that they have commences Phase 3 clinical trials:

Samumed Phase 3 Trials

Not a big surprise considering my August 2018 post on Samumed’s pending Phase 3 trials. Wonder in which country they are holding these trials?

Dr. Takashi Tsuji Still Aiming for 2020

Thanks to “Winston” for finding this Japanese government website link update on Dr. Takashi Tsuji’s work. Dr. Tsuji is partnering with Kyocera, RIKEN and Organ Technologies, so those companies also need to be mentioned. Key quote:

“Regenerating hair follicles is the beginning of that road, and after preclinical and safety testing, our goal is to implement it by 2020. Starting by curing baldness, our intention is to develop an industry aimed at improving quality of life.”

I would want nothing more than an end to baldness and a cessation of my writing these posts after December 31st, 2020. Dr. Tsuji is my number 1 hope of making this happen. He has the requisite intelligence, ethics, drive, decades of research experience, corporate funding and government support.

Addendum: A few people posted comments or e-mailed me about new UK-based hair regeneration company btechlaboratories (since Fuji Maru from Japan covered this company recently). However, btechlabs currently has an insecure (non-https://) website with bad quality writing and layout. And their Twitter link goes to a host provider’s Twitter account. I would expect my readers to be a bit less gullible.