Category Archives: Neal Walker

Neal Walker

Mr. Neal Walker

118 Comments

Based on two of my more recent posts, I think hereon, it is important to follow Mr. Neal Walker, including tracking his stock purchases and company affiliations. Among this man’s accomplishments include:

1) Chairman of Follica, (which has rights to some of Dr. George Cotsarerlis’s most important work).

2) CEO and Co-Founder of Aclaris Therapeutics (which several weeks ago acquired Dr. Angela Christiano’s company Vixen Pharmaceuticals).

So Mr. Walker has essentially managed to acquire rights to the disparate but crucially important works of two of the world’s absolutely foremost hair loss researchers. Also noteworthy, Mr. Walker got his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania, which is home to Dr. George Cotsarelis. Here is the insider transaction page for Aclaris Therapeutics. Follica is still a privately-held company.

Mr. Neal Walker has an MBA, Bachelor’s degree in Biology, a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, and per several sources, is also a board certified dermatologist!

Interestingly, Mr. Walker is or was also:

3) CEO of a company named Vicept Therapeutics, which was purchased by Allergan (a key player in the hair loss cure research world if you have followed this blog) in 2011.  Vicept was working on a cream based treatment for the skin condition rosacea.

4) Vice-Chairman of Ralexar (formerly Alexar) Therapeutics, which is working on a gel based treatment for atopic dermatitis.

5) On the board of Sebacia, which is developing a treatment for acne.

6) Past President at Cutix pharmaceuticals, a developer of sunscreen.

7) The Chief Medical Officer at dermatology related company Trigenesis Therapeutics, prior to its acquisition by Dr. Reddy’s (a key player in the generic hair loss drugs world) in 2004.

8) With his twin brother, Mr. Walker co-founded Octagon Research, which was sold to Accenture in 2012.

9) He is also involved with Advancing Innovation in Dermatology.

10) And has an advisory role at Flexible Medical Systems, a privately-held medical device company.

11) And he seems to be a board member for a company named Specialty Diets; and probably others, but I stopped counting at this point…

Mr. Walker seems to be a remarkable person who is still only 45 years old. I bet he has absolutely perfect skin based on all the skincare products that he has been involved with, and he must surely have resolved all his dermatological issues if any existed in the first place? He does seem to always be smiling in his photos. Will he finally make us all smile too and bring about the cure for hair loss?

Or will he just keep selling the companies that he leads and leave us to continue on our wild goose hair loss cure chase?

Aclaris Therapeutics, Angela Christiano, JAK Inhibitors, Neal Walker, Ruxolitinib, Tofacitinib, Vixen Pharmaceuticals

So JAK Inhibitors Could yet Still Cure AGA?

346 Comments

I had a lengthy new post planned for today, but need to delay it due to a potentially great new development in the world of JAK inhibitors.

JAK Inhibitors and Androgenetic Alopecia

In 2014, the biggest news in the hair loss world involved two separate developments related to JAK inhibitors Ruxolitinib and Tofacitinib curing alopecia areata. While those developments were incredibly exciting and groundbreaking, unfortunately the vast majority (>95 percent) of balding men and women suffer from androgenic alopecia (AGA) rather than alopecia areata (AA).

However, in 2014, Dr. Brett King did suggest that there was a possibility that JAK inhibitors could also cure androgenic alopecia during his interview with Spencer Kobren. In my own analysis, I have always stated that for many androgen related hair loss sufferers, perhaps there is also an inflammatory component. Hence the increased itching and dandruff. Such cases could benefit from JAK inhibitors.

Thereafter, there was no news on this potential cure for AGA for a while, until in 2015 the one and only Dr. Angela Christiano posted results (albeit in mice) that suggested that JAK inhibitors could treat androgenic alopecia. Moreover, this could occur via a topical (as opposed to oral) formulation of the two main candidate drugs: Ruxolitinib and Tofacitinib.

Thereafter, silence yet again for a long time. Even worse, Christopher1 on hairsite stated that JAK inhibitors did not cure his androgenic alopecia. He seems like a very reliable forum member over there so I was disappointed. However, the one good thing is that we do not know how accurately people are using JAK inhibitors at the moment. Some are using off-label products, some are going to inexperienced physicians and some are trying topical experiments. So I still had some hope. In any event, please be aware of the risks involved in these experiments and do not try them yourself. Always see a physician before trying any drug to treat hair loss.

Further contributing to the mood swings, on March 5 2016, a commentator named “Rick” posted an interesting comment on this blog that was largely ignored. Although I hate to trust any one such commentator (especially since in this case he is also using Minoxidil as part of his treatment), I will still paste his comment below since it was missed by so many blog readers:

“Just want you all to know that I have had very good success. With using tofacitinib 30% mixed with minoxidil. I have been doing this process topically for 3 months and have achieved full follicle growth! I will update you more in 30 days. And yes that is for male pattern baldness.”

Perhaps “nasa_rs” has influenced me too much and I am looking for any positive signs?

Aclaris Therapeutics Acquires Vixen Pharmaceuticals

In any event the whole reason for this post is that today came news that Aclaris Therapeutics was buying Vixen Pharmaceuticals (Dr. Angela Christiano and Columbia University affiliated company). At first, when I read a one paragraph news alert summary of this acquisition, I did not think much of this development. This is largely because in my recent trips to Aclaris’ website, I remember reading that they only deal with Alopecia Areata related drugs.

However, I then read a lengthier article about this latest acquisition and some things (see red font below) clearly stood out:

“As a result of this transaction, Aclaris acquired worldwide rights to intellectual property licensed to Vixen by Columbia University covering the use of certain Janus Kinase (JAK) inhibitor compounds for the treatment of alopecia areata, androgenetic alopecia and other dermatological conditions.”

“The acquisition of the Vixen intellectual property and the licensed JAKPharm and Key Organics compounds solidifies Aclaris’ presence in the JAK inhibitor space and allows us to broaden our focus in hair loss to include androgenetic alopecia, often referred to as female or male pattern baldness,” said Neal Walker, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aclaris.

“We are delighted to enter into this agreement with Aclaris for the development of JAK inhibitors for alopecia areata, androgenetic alopecia, and other hair loss disorders,” said Dr. Christiano.”

In conclusion, welcome back “nasa_rs“.