HairClone’s CEO Dr. Paul Kemp Provides Feedback

FYI — Dr. Paul Kemp is answering reader questions in the comments.

Paul Kemp of HairClone Provides More Details

Paul Kemp
Paul Kemp, CEO of HairClone.

After I published a post on new company HairClone several weeks ago, I got an unexpected (but welcome) e-mail from the company’s CEO Dr. Paul Kemp. I responded to Mr. Kemp’s e-mail, he replied back, and I am pasting most of the contents of our communication below. Mr. Kemp offered to share some presentation slides with me, but I was on vacation and preferred waiting till returning home. I will probably get in touch with him again soon, although I am unsure if I want to devote a third post to HairClone in just one month.

In our e-mail correspondence below, I learnt some very interesting things, and perhaps the most surprising of these was the fact that Paul Kemp was formerly the founder and CEO of Intercytex. I covered Intercytex in the past and read about the company numerous times many years ago, but had completely forgotten ever reading Mr. Kemp’s name. In Mr. Kemp’s e-mails, the parts about UK clinical trials potentially moving along faster and about the Hiroshima University technology licensing are very interesting.

I am highly skeptical of HairClone moving along faster than the Tsuji team or Shiseido (both in Japan), but I find Dr. Paul Kemp to be sincere, and, without any doubt whatsoever, his past 2-3 decades of experience in this type of work makes him extremely well qualified. Maybe if I end up seeing Mr. Kemp’s presentation slides I will get more interested in HairClone, but I suspect I need to brush up on my scientific knowledge before checking out those slides.

Mr. Paul Kemp’s first e-mail to me:

“Thanks for mentioning us on your blog and I just wanted to offer to find a way to answer some of the responses in a hopefully constructive way. I would therefore be very happy to chat with you and answer any questions that you may have.

We are certainly not a “get rich quick” or “snake oil” company which is one of the main reasons that we have taken the investment approach that we have. We have been involved at a senior level in a number of biotech companies and have had an enormous amount of experience in raising VC and other funds. We have seen first hand how the influence of all this investment can misdirect the work and how management can lose control of what they feel should be done in return for short term gains.

We wanted to do something different here and involve those directly involved in developing this treatment so that things weren’t abandoned if things needed more work. As well as raising funds and operating biotechs, we have also between us run around 20 different cell therapy clinical trials in the US and Europe.

Some of these have resulted in approved therapies, but we also understand the huge expense and risk of failure in this approach. As you know, several companies have shown less than optimum responses with this “one shot” clinical trial approach when trying to develop a cell therapy for hair regeneration and have dropped out.

All the funds that we raise will go into the development of a treatment and the intention is that we will take small iterative steps, combining increases in our understanding of how dermal papilla cells change during cell culture and how to minimize these changes during multiplication and how these cultured cells will behave and interact with hair follicles when re-implanted in the scalp.

Only when we have a process and treatment that works in the clinic, will we then use this information to design a full clinical trial which will then have a much greater chance of success.

I am very happy to discuss this in detail if you are interested and hopefully we can convince you that our approach is genuine and has a much higher chance of success than previous attempts.

regards

Paul

Paul Kemp PhD
Founder, Chief Executive Director”

My Response to Mr. Paul Kemp’s first e-mail to me:

“Hi Dr. Kemp!

Thanks for your e-mail.

I am currently travelling, but would still like to talk to you when I return.

I have to admit that I am skeptical about your company because you are a ways away from commencing clinical trials, and there are others such as Dr. Tsuji/RIKEN, Shiseido and Histogen that are much further ahead and are aiming for product releases around 2020 or earlier.

Am also curious about Intercytex (see latter part of below post) since you still seem to work for them:

https://www.hairlosscure2020.com/lessons-from-aderans-and-intercytexs-hair-multiplication-failures/

Hope to be in touch with you soon.

Admin”

Mr. Paul Kemp’s second e-mail to me:

“Thanks for getting back to me. We could chat through either Skype or Webex. The latter would be easier, as I can then walk you through our slide presentation. I can understand your skepticism but I would hope I can explain our strategy to you and reduce that. I am very aware of the status of the work at Histogen, Replicel and Organ Technologies and personally know the key players involved.

As to Intercytex, I founded that way back in 2000. We raised a lot of VC money which enabled us to carry out the first cell therapy clinical trial about 10 years ago. I felt although it wasn’t a slam dunk, it did indicate what to do next but the VC investors wanted us to move onto something with shorter timelines and we sold the technology to Aderans where a similar thing happened.

It is a feature of VC investment cycles is that they some of them aren’t in these things for the long term and they control the decisions. Intercytex was broken up in 2009 in the midst of the global financial crisis and I ran it for a few years in order to develop the last technology which was finally sold this year. The company has no employees and no facilities and your comment has made me realize that I do need to come to closure on that.

The Claire Higgins et al’s PNAS paper a couple of years ago was the thing that really made me want to get back into this field. When Intercytex ran their trial we had no way of knowing whether human dermal papilla cells, when expanded, maintained their hair inductive potential. We licensed technology from Hiroshima University that used keratinocyte spent media which, in mice maintained inductive potential in DP cells so we did the only thing we could do at the time to test whether the same was true for human cells which was to run an incredibly expensive clinical trial only to show yet again that human cells don’t behave the same as mouse cells.

The Higgins paper has indicated a simple way to interrogate the cultured cells and determine their expression profile so we can now look at lots of ways to change culture conditions and test the outcome without having to resort to human trials. Those already in trials are, to a large degree, “locked-in” to their processes because of the regulatory constraints imposed by agencies such as the FDA and EMA.

We have no such constraints as we aren’t yet committed to clinical trials and the UK regulations are such that Clinicians can legitimately treat patients pre-marketing license as long as some conditions are met.

We can therefore try lots of different alternatives before committing to the constraints imposed by the regulators when running clinical trials and we feel that the combination of the new science with the supportive regulatory system will allow us to move forward rapidly.

There is a LOT of hype and misinformation out there as you are no doubt aware both about results and timelines but also about the processes that are needed in order to develop, test and market a new medical treatment and part of that is due to industry not being able for confidentiality and investor reasons from reaching out to inform and educate. We have none of those limits and all of the founders of HairClone are committed to informing people of our progress. I am very willing to take however much time is needed to inform the “community” about what we are trying to do which I accept is different from the traditional way of developing a new therapy.

I first started working on cell therapy and regenerative medicine in 1987 and I have come to realize over the last few years that there is a better, cheaper, less risky strategy to develop new therapies and I think hair rejuvenation is the perfect platform to prove this.

Have a great time during your vacation.

Regards,

Paul

Paul Kemp PhD
Founder, Chief Executive Director”


Update: One of this blog’s regular readers sent me an excellent summary regarding HairClone’s likely UK testing approach that is worth pasting here:

“It seems like UK regulatory laws allow clinicians a good deal of leeway in testing. So the idea is that rather than being locked into a protocol that is submitted and approved for clinical trial at great expense, not to mention moving along at a glacial speed, they could test and tweak, patient by patient, on a much quicker and less expensive basis with no regulatory approval needed for changes in protocol as they tweak from patient to patient. US laws do not allow this. And if new research comes available, like the culturing method described in the recent wharton’s jelly post for example, they could quickly gear those changes up for testing in a new patient.

Of course, they could have any number of protocols going at the same time. Conceptually, I think this is a very clever, not to mention practical, idea as you only need to spend the big bucks on the FDA trial after you know the protocol works. Since this involves cell culturing of ones own cells I assume it falls relatively low on the risk scale and a loophole well suited for hair research.”

116 thoughts on “HairClone’s CEO Dr. Paul Kemp Provides Feedback”

      1. Haha. Paul thanks a lot for the compliments, but you do not need to do so in separate comments unrelated to the post subject matter.

  1. HairClone company is a mystery. When they plan to release new treatment on the market? 2030? Never… like intercytex…? They should definitely work hard.
    And hurry to compete with the competition, which is NO SMALL.

  2. Interesting. I was the first comment on the original article who claimed it seemed a bit suspicious, referred to it as the new type of snake oil. I’m still not convinced that this will yield much benefit for HL sufferers, at least in the near future, though I do think it is commendable that Dr Kemp is taking an interest in what HL community thinks and is reaching out. Hope to god they prove me wrong and soon.

  3. Thanks Admin for sharing your email exchange with Mr. Kemp.
    HairClone gives us a lot of hope. Mr.Kemp and Dr Bessam Farjo are very sincere people and are very well respected in their fields. Also, I truly respect the fact that they are involving patients as a community and are keen on sharing their progress openly. Theirs is the first company to do so.
    I have 3 questions for HairClone: About 10-15 days back, I had requested for more information about crowdfunding/investing. I have not received a response yet.
    What more can I do to get involved? Especially since the company is UK based and I live in USA. I’m ready to volunteer and do whatever is needed.
    As I understand, the company will first come out with Replicel kind of treatment while simultaneously working on actual hair cloning. When can we expect the first stage treatment?
    Thanks.

    1. Thanks for your comment and questions. I am sorry for not getting back to you sooner but we have had a lot of requests for more information. I have written the first of what I intend to be a regular series of Newsletters and we are circulating it to people. I didn’t want to create a joint email as I wasn’t sure that would keep people’s emails private to others in the list so I am replying one at a time. Hopefully the newsletter will also answer your other questions. Finding the right balance between communicating the plan and doing plan will take some trial and error and any suggestions people have about tools we could use will be very welcome.

      1. Paul,
        BCC’ing a list of email recipients will keep them private. The only person that would have access to that info would be your email server administration, assuming you are sending it through an email server. The only way that information would get out would be if the administrator gave someone access to it which would be highly morally questionable OR someone hacked the server which would be illegal.

        Beyond that, I’m disappointed in the response to Optimism. The rest of his questions were not recognized and/or ignored. Even if, at this time, it isn’t possible to answer them it would be nice to have them recognized in the response.

      2. Respectfully sir! I am Abhigyan dey from kolkata . I have been reading all of the news feeds & their updates about hair cloning from past few months . I am very glad that you & your fellow researchers are doing great job on discovering the ultimate solution of hair regrowth on balding areas. I am very wishful about hair cloning. I have lost my 60% of hair from crown zone along with temple zone . I am only 21 years now so you can imagine how embarrassing it for me . when will be this treatment available in Kolkata, India? Please let me know . Thanking you . Yours faithfully. Abhigyan Dey .

  4. Thanks admin for sharing the communication!
    If the information provided by them is not worth a third post, you can simply link their presentation in the Oct. brief items of interest.
    Cheers!

    1. Hey Hopeful, I saw the slides via a web-conference and they were interesting, and I will post a link to them once Dr. Kemp puts them on his site. For now he is not sending them to me since he needs to check what parts are shareable with the public and what parts are not.

      Nothing groundbreaking in terms of science in there as far as I could tell (although one gene expression related slide was useful for those with a scientific background), but some other interesting stuff in there.

  5. Paul Kemp is certainly one of the most knowledgeable hair multiplication scientists in the world. Everything he said is spot on. I’m really glad his new company is taking this approach. Perhaps we end up with an earlier HM treatment from another company, but it won’t be a cure–only an interim treatment. Dr. Kemp’s new model has emerged from hard learned lessons of the past and has the potential to usurp any earlier players who release an interim treatment before he finds a cure.

  6. Next steps, expected cosmetic result ? Works on thinning hair and slick bald ? Any plans to release the products in countries like mexico and japan? What are the current main obstacles that should be handled and any approximate release date ?

  7. If you get to the point of human clinical trials, what will be the selection criteria? Will they specifically be run in the UK? If so where in the UK.?

    Also are you hinting at the fact that while other companies are appearing to be laps ahead of you that in fact they are all still at the same stumbling block which is relatively simple to reach but as of yet no one has got over?

  8. Thank you Mr. Kemp for your quick response. Also, thanks to Admin for providing this platform to connect directly with the CEO and one of the founders of a company trying to make hair cloning a reality. Truly appreciate it. I don’t think this has happened before in the hairloss industry. Involving hair loss sufferers in the company’s endeavor is a big step forward.

    The U.K. Testing rules look so much more real and practical. Nice to know.

    Wish the team all the very best. Periodic newsletters as mentioned by Mr. Kemp will be very helpful.

  9. Admin,
    That was a good read. So they are testing their cell therapy findings out side of trials, however, if and when they come across something worth while, they will still need to take that to clinical trials? Is this correct?

    If so, I appreciate his sincerity, but he’s being dusted by competitors that are already in trials with working theories.

  10. “the drug proved to be almost miraculous in its hair-raising powers. Seventy-five percent of patients gained more than 90 percent of their lost hair back during the 3 to 6 months of treatment with the drug. ”

    Right now only for AA type hair loss but at least 90% return of all hair on 75% of patience, and called Miraculous is all a big step forward.

    Remember just a couple of years ago they told us that once you lost your hair you would never get it back since the follicle was dead. We Now Know That Is Completely Not True.

    The article also states that there is a new type of JAK Inhibitors (not tested for baldness cure yet) that could also help us.

    This is not same old information, this is the result of a published study by Columbia research on 12 patience. It is a start and we are getting close and I hope it happens faster than any of us expect.

  11. From report:

    “Along with finding ways to identify early on who will or won’t respond to the treatment, Mackay-Wiggan and her colleagues do plan to test out JAX inhibitors against androgenic alopecia as well as other hair loss conditions in the near future.”

    Columbia test 12 people with AA type hair loss with Rux and had great results. Columbia tested 66 people with AA type hair loss with Tofac with moderate results. Plus there is now another type of JAK inhibitors not tested yet.

    In the very least we know they have tested 88 people with NO major side affects although people did become sick more often due to a compromised immune system from ORAL Jak inhibitors. Although we will have a Creme and thus should have NO side affects but this is not confirmed. My opinion.

    1. also :
      http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/blog/2016/09/22/drug-restores-hair-growth-in-patients-with-alopecia-areata/

      “The CUMC research team plans to expand their studies to include testing these drugs in other conditions such as vitiligo, scarring alopecias, and androgenetic alopecia (pattern baldness) where they may also show efficacy. “We expect JAK inhibitors to have widespread utility across many forms of hair loss based on their mechanism of action in both the hair follicle and immune cells,” said Dr. Christiano.”

  12. Willing to bet their plan is to become UK and American contractors for Tsuji.

    Once Tsuji is out the demand will be so high that one lab won’t be able to handle it. They’ll need to teach the harvesting, culturing, and implanting methods to other doctors and scientists and companies like HairClone would pay licensing fees to use the tech OR they would get bought-out and become a part of whatever Tsuji/Kyocera will call their hair company.

    Just my assumption, they’re putting their names out there, maybe doing some research so they’ll be on the radar when Tsuji/Kyocera are looking for others to implement their hairloss treatment.

    1. Riken/Kyocera have confirmed that their goal is to eventually provide their treatment to clinics all around the world. It would make a lot of sense for HairClone to get in on this if possible.

  13. Not a current fan of Kemp.. anyone out there try progesterone cream on their scalp with any feedback? Sorry admin I may have to repeat myself a few times before I get some feedback. Thanks for supplying the resource.

  14. Comments by Paul Kemp ring true. The greatest conundrum of modern business is that innovators need resources, and investors need that money to get to work. The happy marriage is product development. But for innovators that is the last step. Innovators are really like scientists, they make discoveries, that is their skill. Discoveries can lead to products, but often it can just open up new lines of enquiry. If there was a way investors could invest in the innovator and not just their IP? Less risk for the investor but only because the innovator is selling more of their future. But it does shift the balance the right way.

  15. I’m actually surprised I understood this guy like perfectly, usually when I see quotes from these scientist guys they use so big of words they just talk right over my capacity for English.

  16. I have a question for Hairclone.

    Androgenic Alopecia runs in my family on my dad’s side Iranian middle eastern genes, hirsute etc. Even the BACK of his hair is thin, it’s there in quantity but very very fine and thin. He is incredibly hirsute and N7.

    My question is Tsuji’s team said they have control over hair quantity, color, and SIZE. As in size of the actual bulb itself. I don’t think any company except for Aclaris Jak inhibitors has ever touted control over size of the follicle itself. What does Hairclone scientist have to say for themselves about this?

  17. I think they have tested JAK inhibitors on enough people now that if someone degree a all their hair except for the donut around their head like in adrogenetic alopecia we would have seen something. But who knows, honestly the way JAK inhibitors work is really cool they are stimulated by interferon among other things but interferon is what viruses release when they infect cells and this tells your immune system to attack. So if our JAKs are firing for no reason (or who knows maybe they are defective and DHT plays a role in making them fire bc of a wrongly folded receptor) and signaling like there is a viral infection this is causing the immune system to attack and the inflammatory response we see that shrinks follicles. I think it has a chance to work and since we haven’t seen photo of slope is strata patient that has refrozen hair but only in donut pattern it makes me hopeful.

    1. Ah man all I’m seeing today is healines like “baldness finally cured” with a picture of a guy with MPB poking his bald spot. Then you read the article and it’s all about jaks recent success with AA.

      While I’m truly happy for AA sufferers, the media are either behind the curve or they are being deliberately deceptive. This news has nothing to do with MPB. Worse still there looks like nothing is going to be done in the near future from the company to clinically test jaks for MPB, to the point where they’re basically telling the general public to try it out for themselves!

      I had high hopes on jaks. It’s what got me back into the hairloss battle. I still hold out hope but it’s greatly diminished now.

    1. This doesn’t look good… looks like the start of a legal battle. Hopefully they can figure out the contractual obligations fast without involving a long drawn out legal process.

  18. So much hassle to run a freaking trial. Damn you replicel. Ill pay you to let me use your unproven technology. Would you like my measly dollars? Would it help you, replicel to get the show on the road? Nothing but delays with these guys :(

  19. Aclaris put a PDF with the findings of the JAK study on their website as well.. last 2 sentences are the most interesting:

    The CUMC research team plans to expand their studies to include testing these drugs in other conditions such as vitiligo, scarring alopecias, and androgenetic alopecia (pattern
    baldness) where they may also show efficacy. “We expect JAK inhibitors to have widespread utility across many forms of hair loss based on their mechanism of action in both the hair
    follicle and immune cells,” said Dr. Christiano.

  20. Just had an email from HairClone – All reads well but doesn’t have much substance to it..”we are presenting” “we are in talks”…a lot of hypothetical stuff. I’m still sceptical that this is just an augmented snake oil, where guys desperate for a solution plough money into something so they can carry out research on the off-chance something comes of it. I’d ward people off – how many times have we seen companies come out with great sounding stuff who are 5 years later no further on, running out of funding and just packing it all in? Just this time around, when that happens, it will be your average guy who has footed the bill for it. I wrote a paper on power discourses and co-production once, and this just really seems like it will be the consumer who takes the hit…no different from snake oil.

    “We will be launching an equity based crowdfunding campaign using a crowdfunding platform by the end of the year. Based on the rules for crowdfunding at the site we have chosen, we will be limited in this particular campaign to 150 investors so are looking for individuals who are interested in investing at least €1,000. If you would like to be considered for this and contacted by the crowdfunding platform then please let us know. We plan to carry out other crowdfunding campaigns next year too”

  21. Regarding the recent news release by Replicel:

    It appears that they have been accused of not upholding their part of the agreement, to which they are denying. The release states that the worse case scenario is that if these allegations are proven to be true, then Replicel will only lose the royalty payments from the products’ profits in the Asian region. This will in no way effect the release of the product in Japan, as that is Shiseido’s domain. Although Replicel has not started their western based phase 2 clinical trials, Shiseido is currently underway in their phase 2 study (started at the end of July). Shiseido doesn’t need Replicel in order to release the RCH-01 product in Japan. Even if there were to be a legal conflict between the two, it wouldn’t effect the release of the product because it is Replicel that is accused of being in the wrong, and they no longer have exclusive rights to RCH-01 after signing the deal with Shiseido. Shiseido can basically do whatever they want with the product in the Asian region.

    I wouldn’t be worried about this news. As long as Shiseido brings RCH-01 to market, that’s all that really matters. It will make its way over to Europe, and then NA relatively soon after. The biggest takeaway from the article, in my opinion, is that Lee Buckler reiterated that the product still has potential for “an early release in Asia”.

  22. 12 people on Rux regrew 90% of their hair. Apparently not one of them had a HORSESHOE hair loss pattern.

    Gents, we have the treatment!!!

  23. 66 people on Tofac regrew 50% of their hair. Apparently not one of them had a HORSESHOE hair loss pattern.

    Gents, we have the treatment!!!

        1. True. But 4b looks as if his hair is getting thicker all over but still thin on the HorseShoe side but growing hair.

          10b has a lot of hair growing on top but it is much thinner on the sides and in the back but it does look like there is hair there.

          Lastly, this is from Oral JAK Inhibitor. Lotion JAK should be more effective.

          1. I blew up photo 10b (the worst of the two that apparently still had male pattern baldness horseshoe pattern hair loss).

            His overall hair was still very thin. However his thickest hair was at the very top of his head only in the back did he have a big circle of hair loss that was part of the horseshoe pattern hair loss. But even there, it appeared to be filling in.

            Lastly the treatment for male pattern hairloss should mainly work from a topical not from the oral form of the drug.

            After analysis I actually believe it proves it WILL work for male pattern hair loss.

            2017 once we know for sure it works things are going to go crazy. Where there is a will there is a way. Control Tower: we are ready for launch.

  24. “12 people on Rux regrew 90% of their hair. ”
    “66 people on Tofac regrew 50% of their hair.”
    Nah, it´s not really true:
    “RESULTS. Nine of twelve patients (75%) demonstrated a remarkable response to treatment, with average hair regrowth of 92% at the end of treatment. ”
    https://insight.jci.org/articles/view/89790

    “RESULTS. Of 66 subjects treated, 32% experienced 50% or greater improvement in SALT score.”
    https://insight.jci.org/articles/view/89776

  25. Yes, Nasa you are slightly skewing what is actually being said in the studies XD It is still a high percentage but there are only pictures of one of the patients (who does happen to be male and no horseshoe pattern, but obviously one person is not proof) so there’s no way to know for sure.

    And yes Anonymous you are correct they are doing preclinical trials for Androgenetic Alopecia, Alopecia Areata (again b/c they are testing topical form), and Vitiligo. They are testing topical formulation for all these so whoever is saying they aren’t testing JAK for Andro. Alopecia, you are just flat out wrong/lying. As you can see below it is on their pipeline page.

    Just because it’s working for AA has nothing to do with whether it will work for Andro. Alopecia or not. It works by reducing the response of the immune system to perceived cytokines (interferons, which are what are released by cells infected by viruses). This results in inflammatory response/immune response and can absolutely have an effect in Andro. Alopecia. Will it? No one can answer for sure, they are testing though so unless you find a picture of an AA patient that has regrown hair but only in horseshoe pattern from taking JAK inhibitors, then we have no proof it won’t, and no proof it will.

    Only time will tell now.

    1. Not wrong nor lying, it is in the pipeline as in the pre clinical trial phase, which means no studies have started on the safety of efficacy of the product. They are still developing a study on the subject, devising a formula with a hypothesis that the mechanisms will work. Therefore they are not testing Jake for aga, hence ” pre clinical”.

  26. hello Admin,

    I share the same views as you in regards to not advocating for people to try group buys from unknown companies. However, I thought you would find it interesting that the 1st batch of Brotzu lotion made from the person we discussed is being used and reported on. One person from Gb is 4 days into using lotion and is simply reporting on sensation but sounds very positive. interesting to say the least we shall see. ttys admin thanks for the amazing work you do.. i think us guys should pitch in once and a while and do something for you.

    1. Thanks Rich. I am not necessarily against reputable group buys, but hard for me to research each one so just do not recommend them.

        1. Hi Sanchez and Skin,

          Thank you for reply.

          Are you sure? What they said in interview about Eggheads/DUPA ? I’m Quebecker, I speak only in french. It’s difficult for me to understand English… Google Translate is bad.

          I understand that Tsuji will use healthy follicles. If the patient have not hair, cloning it’s impossible and if hair are extremely miniaturized, the result will be not good and programmed hair to fall will fall anyway.

          I will be completely bald before 2017, it’s sure. Hope for egghead? If yes, how?

          Thank you and sorry again for my bad English.
          William

            1. No, it’s impossible for me. I lost 99% of my hair and the 1% is fluff/duvet (extremely thin). No hair are healthy and completly fall before 2017.

              I’ll say it differently: Tsuji will be effective for total bald (egghead/zero hair)?

  27. @Red. There is so much hate in this thread… It’s the final countdown…start by reducing the prices of hair transplants. Just a advice.

  28. For anyone that hasn’t seen it yet, here is the interview with Kyocera/ Tsuji :
    https://www.hairlosstalk.com/news/new-research/hair-primordiums-tsuji-organ-interview-sept2016/

    They are planning for a 2020 release in Japan, expecting to be able to have a capacity of 10,000 patients a year.

    Based on those numbers I expect the price to be in the upper 10’s of thousands (close to 100k), based on aiming for a $1B revenue (which is just my assumption, they may be happy with lower revenues). Hopefully they figure out a way to increase their bandwidth in the next 3 years so they can both reduce the cost and meet the high demand.

    The interview is very interesting, I recommend all reading it.

    1. If that’s true then it’s baldness for me. Anything above 15K to keep hair is just such a waste. They can p*ss right off if that’s their pricing. Luckily though, I reckon you will be waaaaaay off.

      1. I hope you are right… That number was based off a 1bn revenue model… And my guess is that I’m wrong as well as they will want to create a market around the treatment at fist, not worrying completely about financials but more about their stake hold in the industry. If they become a household name, they would be in line to make 10s of billions/ year vs 1.

    2. There are about 18 million HL sufferers in Japan alone. If they could only treat 10000 people every year, then it will take 1800 years to treat all of them. LOL.
      I was expecting them to be able to treat 1000 patients a day but yeah just a dream I guess.

  29. The Tsji interview is great and interesting. That being said I think its safe to assume, that its baldness for all of us. Hate to be that guy, but there is absolutely nothing on the horizon to halt our hl besides maybe Brotzu or JAK. After reading up on Brotzu I’ve become more interested and eagerly waiting for Fidia to release some results, same goes for JAK. Big maybe for both tho.
    I completely stopped reading bout Replicel, Follica, Histrogen etc. as they will not be within reach before all of us are slick bald…

  30. @Spanky. Nothing in the horizon….? Are you kidding us? Please come on…Don’t make me laugh…The next year people with MPB/AGA will have a new treatment more effective than current treatment. You can believe it. And the best: YOU KNOW IT.

  31. @Paul, no I dont know it and neither do you. I admire your optimism, but your in complete denial. I even think you made posts like this in 2014 and 2015.

    I know there is a s**tload of companies working on something, but its all so far away that you, me and everyone else on this board,,will be bald before something gets released.

    1. @Spanky: You’d be surprised who writes behind each Nickname…haha…. I think you are very wrong, new treatments will be available soon. And you you’re going to see. That’s the reality. Too much demand for effective treatment. Sorry again. That’s business.

  32. I think we were a generation too late :( This Tsuji procedure would be only available at a reasonable cost around 2025-2030. Not looking good for us.

    1. Hey Paul.
      It’s not about next year, nor even the year after that. It’s the products that are coming out over the near future. If you have to be a bald guy for 1 or 2 years I think you will manage knowing that there are treatments around the corner.

      There are multiple products coming out and, as I’ve said before, those treatments along with a hair transplant will most like solve many of the problems that we have.
      Let’s say histogen did nothing but maintain what you had for 2-5 years/ treatment. If it was out right now, I would happily go in for the treatment, get an ht for what it doesn’t cover (for me that is temporal recession) and get a secondary treatment 2-5 years down the road from histogen… If necessary. All while know that if it gets worse there are treatments like tsuji coming down the pipeline.

      The future is looking bright.

  33. @Curious, Nice post. I see your point but your relying on wishful thinking and naive hope. You havent seen any results, and none of the companies you mention have shown us anything. The future looks bright the day we have rock solid proof of a working treatment.

    @Paul, yer whatever mate…

    1. @Spanky
      I guess you could call it wishful thinking but isn’t that why we are all here?

      Naive hope? No, far from it. When I say “if” I really mean if. All of these treatments have the possibility to fail as well as succeed. But if you’re on the trip where there will never be a treatment then I’m not sure what to tell you. Hope is kinda all that we have right now… hope that one of these many companies comes up with a treatment that is works.

      As I said before. I think most of us would be happy with maintaining what we have if it were simpler with less sides and no hormonal imbalance that what we have now. A one time treatment that lasts 2 to 5 years would be amazing. If that treatment regrew hair as well that is a very welcome bonus but really just the easy maintenance would be key in using what we already have to give the results we want. That would give us the time we need to wait it out for the actual “cure”.

  34. @Paul, mention a treatment besides Brotzu that could be released soon and could be better than Fin or Minox? No? You cant because there is NONE!

    1. @Be patient.

      Minoxdil and Finasteride: In summary:
      – 10-12% regrowth (no terminal hair).
      – Dangerous side effects ( sexual and neurologycal sides)
      – Treatment every day. In 2017 daily treatment for MPB? Deplorable.
      – Agressive shedding! Precarious treatments for precarious results.
      – Expensive cost ( every month you need to buy it)
      – Don’t work for all. Very limited results. Limited efficacy.

      @Spanky. Do yoy want more? It’s a matter of common sense. and huge demand.
      Good luck. Take care.

  35. JAK’s are FINALLY being tested in bulk. Over 88 people tested and more will be tested starting in 2017. Plus there is another new type of JAK’s that have not been tested for treating hair loss.

    1st Quarter 2017 JAK is officially tested on male pattern hair loss.

    This could finally be it. We are not years away but less than 1 year before we know. Then it is going to get wild and you can guess why. If they find Rux works where there is a will there is a way.

  36. @nasa_rs, im also keeping my fingers crossed for JAK. Hopefully they will release great test results like they did with the AA patients.

  37. Sorry again not to reply to people sooner and I think it easier for me to combine questions and answers rather than answering each question as it comes in.

    “Optimism” asks “what are the next steps and how can he be more involved as he is in the US”. Our next steps are four fold. Firstly to raise initial funding, secondly to launch our Clinical Partner Program, thirdly to start work on expansion protocols with Claire Higgins and fourthly to obtain licenses from the UK’s Human Tissue Authority to allow us to start the follicle banking. One of the main aims of the Clinical Partner Program is to expand our reach and we are in detailed talks with US and Asian clinicians. I hope to be able to announce our first partner in the next couple of weeks. Once we start to spread the clinical network then non-UK patients can connect to the most local partner and Optimism will have someone in the US to contact.

    “Skin” is correct that our first clinical studies will take place in the UK, specifically at the Farjo Hair Institute in Manchester and he is also correct that once we have a system that works satisfactorily then we will run larger scale clinical trials to confirm the results. The difference with this to the classic approach is that our trial will be based on real clinical experience. As to our first “target” it will be follicle rejuvenation and then later follicle regeneration. The scientific, clinical and commercial fields involved in these technologies are very small, we are all aware of each other and have often worked together in the past on different projects.

    “2cents” is correct in saying that whoever develops a true working solution will be overwhelmed by demand. It is also likely that different solutions may find different applications and markets and the future will hopefully see a lot of collaborative approaches and commercial partnerships.

    Thank you for the feedback and questions, if you don’t find my responses detailed enough then just keep asking!

    1. Thank you for the reply. It’s exciting to hear trials could start here in the UK.

      Not that I want to volunteer for clinical trials…..but I want to volunteer for clinical trials! Manchesters only down the road from me ;-)

      Are there many stumbling blocks you foresee when dealing with regulatory bodies in the UK? I.e perceived ethical issuse as the UK steps carefully wherever cloning is mentioned.

  38. Thanks a lot for answering my questions, Mr. Kemp. Will look forward to knowing who the local partner in US will be. Also, I’ll definitely want to participate in the proposed equity crowdfunding. All the very best wishes for you and your team.

  39. I have a couple of questions for Dr. Kemp.

    1. If I recall correctly, Dr. Jahoda implanted DP cells into Dr. Reynold’s arm, and this did not result in the growth of hair. Have you implanted (direct) uncultured DP cells into human patients in order to prove that, if you can keep high passaged DP cells from changing their genetic structure when cultured, it will essentially result in a cure?

    2. Why have you seemingly chosen DP cells as your main focus? Why not use DS cells with embryonic properties, which some research suggest are potentially be more capable of producing new hair than DP cells when implanted into human tissue? Why not use stem cells from the stromal tissue remaining on plucked anagen hairs?

    Thank you!

  40. I’m really wondering what these treatments/basically cures like Hairclone and Tsuji are going to cost now. I’ve researched some hair transplants costing 12 grand just for a little patch up. What Ryken and these other companies are doing is much better than those by far which has kinda dawned on me yikes.

  41. @ Paul kemp: hi I’m a 29 yr old male from Nottinghamshire, and would like to be involved in the trials when they start , how and when would I be able to sign up . Thanks

  42. We need a cure NOW. Not later. NOW.

    I have endured the prime years of my life, my 20’s as a bald piece of s**t. I was a looks God until this filthy disease struck me and ruined the best years of my life and turned them to ash.

    I’m now 30 and need the next 10 to make up for my garbage 20’s. I could be much higher in terms of career and sexual partners now, but my lack of hair RAVAGED my confidence. So these next 10 years need to make up for it.

    But soon after the turn of 2017, I’ll be 31 already. That’s 1 year of my 30’s gone. And more will pass with NOTHING fixing it. Get to work, scientists!! This is just HAIR… SURELY you can solve this seemingly easy task?! It’s not asking to cure cancer.

    If I get to 35 and they’ve not came with a veritable cure, taking me from NW6 back to at LEAST NW2, then I will mercy kill myself. My life will be utterly pointless. I will look back on it in old age with bitterness and revulsion.

    The only thing that might stay my blade, as it were, is if there is some indication from the science community of massive life extension technology and reverse-aging, so even if I get to 70, I can look 25 again and enjoy life for a few decades looking like that. Then I will hold out.

    But still, I would be much more hopeful if these companies just HURRIED!!!

    1. Just follow Aclaris study that starts 1 st quarter 2017 (or better yet some can volunteer). Then if it works it just becomes a matter FOR ME of, If There Is A Will There Is A Way.

      Its not years anymore but months, less than 1 year.

  43. A repeat of a prior post:

    Also… just looked at the link below:
    https://insight.jci.org/articles/view/89790/figure/2

    Both 4b and 10b have horseshoe patterns…smh.
    Reply
    *****************************
    I blew up photo 10b (the worst of the two that apparently still had male pattern baldness horseshoe pattern hair loss).

    His overall hair was still very thin. However his thickest hair was at the very top of his head only in the back did he have a big circle of hair loss that was part of the horseshoe pattern hair loss. But even there, it appeared to be filling in.

    Lastly the treatment for male pattern hairloss should mainly work from a topical not from the oral form of the drug.

    After analysis I actually believe it proves it WILL work for male pattern hair loss.

    2017 once we know for sure it works things are going to go crazy. Where there is a will there is a way. Control Tower: we are ready for launch.

    1. Yo @Nasa_rs

      I’ve been seeing your comments on JAK and man, you do sound hyped and confident as hell.
      However, I gotta ask, what makes you sooooooooo sure it will work (or what makes you soooo optimistic to think it will)?
      Is it scientific evidence? market related?
      I really want to believe in Topical JAK too but man, please convince me right here right now … :'( I need that topical to work :(

      1. I found a scientific abstract once about some arthritis type of drug. For whatever reason, they mentioned that people with AA type hair loss regrew it and that people with male pattern hair loss regrew hair but they needed higher dosage and that it did not work as well in most cases. Sounds a bit negative but it did not say if they took pills or a lotion (more than likely it was only a pill and that does not work for male pattern hair loss). The conclusion that I reached simply that it had worked. Plus a couple of rare cases that I will not mention.

        Simply wait until Aclaris pharaceuticals releases their test of Phase I of lotion JAK on male pattern hair loss. They start the test in 1st quarter 2017. Not a long wait to find out for real if it will work. Good Luck.

        1. Thanks for the info nasa_rs, any chance you can link this scientific abstract?
          Also, where did you read that Aclaris will start trials in Q1 2017?
          Thanks!

    2. @Nasa

      Sorry for continuing to burst your bubble but your logic is: because they have a horseshoe pattern it proves that it works?
      Seems a bit delusional.

      From my understanding of what I have seen with other studies, and even this one (take 3a/b for example), is that JAK inhibitors work fairly fast, growing hair almost immediately. This study itself is only 3-6 months. The picture in 10b shows a hair length of around 6 months of growth meaning that he received the full treatment for the study. While I don’t want to say it is impossible that he could continue to grow hair, the photo shows someone with AGA type of balding even after taking JAK inhibitors. Yes he does have some growth around the edges of the horseshoe and some even extends in towards the center a bit but I’d say that isn’t uncommon for AGA hair loss. Those hairs you see are probably just the ones that haven’t been effected yet.

      You may be right with topical Jak inhibitors and I hope you are. They may work for AGA sufferers but as of now I would say that oral doesn’t and coming to any other conclusion without further data would be irresponsible. I know that is hard to take because you have a lot of emotion invested into JAK inhibitors working but I hope you can come to a realistic conclusion that without seeing actual data on AGA (not AA) patients, we can’t say that it works or will work.

  44. We can know if it works from now if someone can reach the chemistry rx pharmacy and get the 2% 30 mg topical jak (which need a derma prescription) instead of waiting for 2017 …

    1. hey Hlscc, ans nasa_rs

      Yes we could know now if it does work.
      But maybe we could buy some xeljanz in group and turn it in topical form ? Some could contact a chemist who could make it
      An other track we could follow is to buy some setipiprant. Because there is a clinical trial with the oral form, some scientists think setipiprant could work

    2. It appears that RUX might work better but that is why we wait. We find out what works and in what dosage. Do not do things on your own.

  45. Hi Dr. Kemp,
    I have just one question for you: Your technology will be effective for total bald (egghead/zero hair/DUPA)?
    Thank you.
    William

  46. Just as a suggestion.

    I think we should all chip in a small amount of cash into a regular and willing posters paypal so they can run a 4 month run of that topical jak.

    It’s getting around the prescription though.

    If there’s a way around this I would happily chip in as an observer but I will bow out of using it myself for now.

    Anyone here have a genuine reason for a prescription or any have a pal with AA?

  47. @Curious, unless its to generate funds, surely they must know something we dont since they have put a topical JAK on their pipeline graph…

    1. @Spanks
      True, who knows. But I’ll say it again… I hope I’m wrong but I’m not convinced until I see evidence on a person with AGA.

      I do truly believe something comes through in the next couple of years. It’s not so important as to what or which one but as long as we move on to the next generation treatments I’ll be happy. Once we have those treatments the next round of scientists will have to look for the “cure” instead of treatments. We might not see the “cure” in our lifetime (or for it to make a difference to us) or maybe we will (Tsuji) but I think the next gen treatments are going to give us a sense of relief once they hit market, providing most of us with an active solution to our hair problems. I’m afraid people who have progressed too far might not be able to see the benefits from these next gen treatments but if you are NW3/4ish, maybe early stages of 5, I think what we are be presented has a lot of potential in terms of changing the culture around hair loss: more people seeking treatments, lower prices for HTs and more comfort in addressing the issue at hand and receiving results we are genuinely happy with. The culture that exists now is outdated: deal with it or get an HT (or multiple over your life) + daily pills.

      p.s.
      Glad that you’re keeping my skepticism in check

  48. HairClone aims to begin follicle banking for patients in the UK in 1st half 2017 and transplanting cellular treatments in 2nd half 2017, though this is dependent upon HairClone getting sufficient investments to carry out their development plan.

  49. I am sorry for not replying directly to questions, but we have been very busy over the last few days as those of you who follow us on Twitter or Facebook will know.
    As to the questions about the UK regulators and “cloning”. We thought long and hard about using the word cloning in our name, partly for that reason, but “Hair Cloning” is the main term used by the field and “HairMultiplication” just didn’t sound like a good name for a Company! Though that is just what cloning means-multiplication-and the regulators’ concern is limited to cloning entire people rather than just hairs! I have worked with the FDA, MHRA and EMA regularly over the years. I have discussed HairClone’s plans with them from day one and I have found the UK regulators to be extremely pragmatic. They are very aware of the limit’s of the current system of having a “working Theory” which then goes straight into expensive, time consuming clinical trial with a binary output that either meets the primary end point or doesn’t. This system is in marked contrast with the way that surgery has developed day in, day out over the years which is by steady, incremental improvements (Plug grafts to FUT to FUE as just one example).
    Our aim is to work together with the various regulators involved and our clinical partners to develop a system that we know works BEFORE we embark on the standard clinical trials that will be needed to be able to market the treatment internationally.
    As to what we expect the treatment to be able to do. I am determined not to hype up the possibilities ahead of the data in humans, as there are many many cases where scientists have shown that mice are not the same as people! We aim to examine every alternative way that cultured human cells (and not just DP cells though they are the very obvious starting point) could reduce or reverse hair loss. And importantly with gene array systems that have become routine over the last few years we can now monitor the cell’s characteristics as we culture them.
    Research is not a fast process if it is to be carried out correctly. The clue is in the word. If scientists always got it right the first time they would have called it “Search” rather than “Re-Search”. I won’t be drawn into giving specific dates but what I will say is that we absolutely intend to keep working at it until we develop a treatment that truly works. By calling ourselves HairClone we have “nailed our colours to the mast” and ensured we stay focused on this one goal and do not get distracted into looking at treatments for other medical problems.
    Please keep the questions coming as they really do help us .

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