Category Archives: Shiseido

Manabu Ohyama, Replicel, Shiseido, Takashi Tsuji

Shiseido Discusses Replicel Technology

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The below two superb videos from Japan’s Shiseido were shared by its Canadian partner Replicel three weeks ago. I delayed embedding them here until they had English subtitles (which they now do if you click on CC in the lower right corner of the videos). Some of the visuals are very interesting and instructive. In my opinion, if final clinical trials this year work out as expected, Shiseido will be able to bring this technology to fruition far more rapidly and easily in comparison to Replicel due to two main reasons:

  1. Japan’s newer much more friendlier regulations governing regenerative medicine and stem cell research.  Stage 3 clinical trials will no longer be required in Japan.
  2. Shiseido’s drastically larger size and funding availability in comaprison to Replicel.  According to wikipedia, Shiseido is the largest cosmetics firm in Japan, and the fourth largest cosmetics firm in the world.

The second video covers the work of Dr. Takashi Tsuji and of Dr. Manabu Ohyama (who it seems might be working for Shiseido).

RCH-01, Replicel, Shiseido

Replicel and Shiseido update

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Yesterday, Replicel announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2014.

The main hair related items of interest were:

  1. Shiseido’s new research center in Japan, already discussed on this blog before.
  2. Replicel anticipating the start of Phase 2 trials for its RCH-01 hair regeneration technology in Germany in the fourth quarter of 2014.
  3. Shiseido also starting Phase 2 trials in Japan in the fourth quarter of 2014.  I was surprised to read that Shiseido is the world’s fourth largest cosmetics company, further lending credibility to Replicel’s technology.

Note that on Replicel’s website, they still have a page where one can volunteer to sign up for their clinical trials provided one resides in Austria or Germany.  It seems like they are limiting enrollment to 160 male volunteers.

The company’s losses increased modestly compared to the same period last year, but there seem to be valid reasons for this as explained in their announcement. Nevertheless, the company’s stock price declined by over 7 percent today as of the time of writing this post.

Replicel (REPCF)’s 1-year daily stock price and volume traded (in 000 shares per day) charts from nasdaq.com:

stock chart

According to a June 2014 report from Allied Analytics, the global regenerative medicine market is expected to grow from $16.4 billion in 2013 to $67.6 billion in 2020 — a stellar outlook.  Besides hair regeneration, Replicel is also involved in tendon regeneration (RCT-01) and skin regeneration (RCS-01) technologies.  The company has stated that its tendon regeneration product is its most important focus, while its skin regeneration product is still in an early research phase of development.

Considering that Replicel uses autologous (one’s own) cells in the regeneration process, the chances of any kind of serious side effects seem minimal.  This has favorable implications for the company passing safety requirements during Phase 2 trials.

It is worth following Replicel’s Facebook page and Replicel’s Twitter feed for more frequent updates.