Category Archives: Follicum

Contract Research, Dabur Research, Follicum

Interview with Dr. Anu Singh of Dabur Research in India

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In my first post on Follicum in 2015, I mentioned that the Swedish company’s pre-clinical trials for its hair loss product were being conducted by contract research organization Dabur Research Foundation (DRF) in India. Around a month ago I contacted DRF with some questions. The company’s vice president of R&D was kind enough to reply to all of them.  Interview is below, with bolded parts being the most interesting for us in my opinion.

Interview with Dabur Research COO Dr. Anu Singh

Hi Dr. Singh,

I am not sure how many of the questions below you can answer, but even a few would be great.

1) You said that you have been involved in the hair biology sector for 15 years. During that time, how many companies or other entities have you conducted research for that were involved in the hair loss industry in some capacity or other? I assume most or all of those were developing an oral or topical product for hair loss?

In the last 15 years Dabur Research Foundation has worked with more than 40 companies that were working on hair loss and hair growth promoters. Yes, these companies are working on both topical oral products, though a larger number are focused on development of topical products.

2) If you answered the above question, what portion of your hair research related clients were from developed countries? Are there companies in India that have worked with you in the hair biology sector?

We found a lot of interest and focus on hair biology in Scandinavian countries as well as in Europe. In India we have worked with biotechnology focused start ups that are developing novel targeted molecules for hair loss.

3) What makes a company (e.g., Follicum) that is based in a developed country decide to use your services rather than use the services of local research organizations with which they can have daily in-person communication? Is the primary benefit a lower cost?

I believe that cost may play a role, but their decision to work with Dabur Research is perhaps based on our long years of experience in this field. The models in hair loss/hair growth need to be highly quantitative in nature so that the leads that have the highest probability of working in humans can be fast tracked. We have invested in early years in development of these robust, quantitative & predictable models for hair growth. I believe that this is the strength that we bring to our partners.

4) During the 15 years that you have been doing work on hair biology, have you seen any significant trend that would indicate that a new drug(s) to treat hair loss is very close? We have had no major publicly available drugs to treat hair loss other than Minoxidil (Rogaine) and Finasteride (Propecia) in all these decades. Nothing new in the last 15 years other than Dutasteride (Avodart), but that is not officially approved to treat hair loss. Are you optimistic that at least one of the companies that you have worked with will bring to market something groundbreaking in the near future for us hair loss sufferers? Are we close to stopping and perhaps even reversing hair loss with a drug?

The more we learn of the multiple pathways causing hair loss, more likely we are to find a good product. Hair loss is multifactorial, so developing products that modulate all or most of the key pathways and targets should be the goal. I am confident that these approaches will bring new effective hair growth promoters in the next 3-5 years.

5) Can you provide us with names of some companies or institutions that you have worked with in the hair loss research arena over the past 15 years? I just know about Follicum.

I am sorry, we enter into a confidentiality agreement with each of our collaborators and currently I am not at liberty to disclose names.

6) Will you ever be conducting human trials in India?

Yes in near future, we intend to test a novel hair growth promoter developed by us in the clinics.

7) Have you heard about the new regulations in Japan that speed up clinical trials (essentially, you get to skip what we refer to as final Stage 3 trials in the US)?

Sorry, please tell me more about this.

8) What portion of your hair loss related research has been in vivo versus in vitro? When it comes to in vivo testing, are mice the only animals that you use for work in the hair biology sector?

Over the years we have built expertise in both in vitro as well as in vivo models for quantitation of hair growth. Our approach is to minimize the usage of animals & at the early stages use in vitro alternatives like hair papilla cultures.

Anu T. Singh Ph.D

Vice President (R&D)
Dabur Research Foundation

FOL-005, Follicum, Hirsutism

Follicum Commences Human Trials for FOL-005

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I first covered the relatively new Sweden-based company called Follicum in April of last year. Thereafter, the company made a few announcements via press releases that I largely ignored since it was yet to commence phase 1 human clinical trials. And we all know how long those take, even after accounting for newer regulations in some countries that can shorten the time.

Follicum Begins Phase 1 Clinical Trials

However, last week Follicum finally announced that they had commenced phase 1 clinical trials of their FOL-005 product. This product can interestingly both inhibit hair as well as stimulate hair, although it seems like the company might be naming the hair stimulation product something else down the road, and it could be slightly different from FOL-005. According to Follicum, both the hair inhibition and hair stimulation products are based on “a large human protein which has been manipulated and modified.”

They currently have 1 patient on whom the drug is being tested upon, but aim to have a total of 30 patients soon. The study is being undertaken at the highly respected Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin that I have covered on this blog before. This makes me take Follicum a bit more seriously.

The company’s research on mice (undertaken by contract research organization Dabur Research Foundation in India) suggests that this product will be significantly superior to Minoxidil when it comes to scalp hair growth.

Note that the current press release by the company only mentions testing FOL-005 for hair inhibition (important for those who suffer from excessive body hair, aka hirsutism). But I assume they will also be doing testing for hair stimulation with another similar product or the same product? I am not interested enough for the time being to ask the company about that important detail, but perhaps will do so after they come out with one more press release in the coming months. My intuition tells me that the hair stimulation product will have a different name and slightly different chemistry.

I was reluctant to write an entire post on Follicum, but changed my mind after a request on the hair loss chat on this site. And also because my monthly brief items of interest post is still over two weeks away.