Hair Loss Cure 2020

Earlier today, the Robb Report covered hair restoration in detail. On a somewhat related note, I have read some well researched hair loss articles during the past several weeks. The most important of these were in the Wall Street Journal and in Labiotech.

Stem Cell Hair Transplants

However, the Robb Report article stood out the most (see further below for my reasoning). It rightly promotes FUE hair transplants as the best current solution for androgenetic alopecia. See my post on FUE versus FUT hair transplants.

What really caught my eye is the below quote from renowned Bosley Medical director Dr. Ken Washenik. I have covered him many times on this blog in the past. It is rare for these well known hair industry experts to make predictions of under 5 years.

“Stem-cell hair transplants are in clinical studies, and Washenik suspects that they’ll be available in the UK and Japan by 2022 or 2023, based on their research progress.”

Note that these stem cell hair transplants are not the same as Dr. Gho’s totally different Hair Stem Cell transplantation (HST).

Hair Multiplication in Japan

I am guessing that Dr. Washenik is talking about Dr. Takashi Tsuji and the RIKEN/Organ Technologies/Kyocera partnership when it comes to the Japanese hair multiplication trials.

He could of course also be talking about Shiseido. Nevertheless, I will assume that Mr. Washenik reads this blog daily and knows which of the two Japanese entities is closer to the end goal :-)

Hair Cloning in the UK

What really made an impression on me is that Mr. Washenik mentions the UK. I am led to believe that he is talking about HairClone, a company that I covered in detail a number of times between 2016-2019. Of course he could also be covering some UK university research trials.

Update: On Twitter, Dr. Greg Williams made an important point about the Robb Report article. Specifically, in regards to the difference between stem cells and dermal papilla cells:

Hair Stem Cells vs Dermal Papilla

I have become less interested in HairClone during the past year. Myself and this blog’s impatient readers are not too interested in hair follicle banking related updates in 2020.

HairClone has always claimed that they are also working on hair cloning (or hair multiplication) as the long-term holy grail. However, I assumed that their research (in partnership with Dr. Claire Higgins’ team and others in the UK) was still in its early stages. I think they are yet to even start clinical trials, although I could be wrong per Dr. Washenik’s implication.

Hopefully, autologous stem cell hair transplant related clinical trials are allowed to proceed faster than normal in the UK. Or some stages can be skipped based on past research and trial work from the Higgins team.

Overoptimism

More likely, Dr. Washenik is a little overoptimistic when it comes to the UK forecast. Just like Dr. George Cotsarelis was when it comes to the US.

Interestingly, Dr. Washenik mentions that the US had hair multiplication related clinical trials underway in the past, but none are currently ongoing. I hope that Stemson Therapeutics changes that soon.

Aclaris Exits Hair Loss Business

Recent rumors are, unfortunately, very true. Several days ago, I contacted Aclaris Therapeutics’ Head of Corporate Strategy Mr. Michael Tung. I asked him for any update on their androgenetic alopecia (AGA) JAK inhibitor product. His short and succinct response was as follows:

“We exited all of that unfort”.

I am disappointed, but was expecting this bad news. Their pipeline page no longer even shows any products to target AGA or Alopecia Areata (AA). Last year, they were searching for a partner to help further develop their “investigational compounds” ATI-501 (oral) and ATI-502 (topical).

Sorry to reader “nasa_rs”. However, not a big surprise after the past year of limited information releases by Aclaris regarding their alopecia products.

March 18, 2019

Aclaris JAK Inhibitor Trial Update

I used to cover Aclaris Therapeutics and its topical JAK inhibitor product for androgenetic alopecia fairly regularly. However, there have been very few significant recent updates.

Today morning, Aclaris released a summary of its FY 2018 results. The most relevant part for us concerns the ATI-502 topical Janus Kinase (JAK) 1/3 inhibitor product for AGA. They also seem to name this same product as AGA-201 and ATI-50002 in other references.

Per the latest news, Phase 2 open-label clinical trials for ATI-502 (a topical JAK1/3 inhibitor) involve 31 patients with AGA. Interim 6-month data are expected in the second quarter of 2019, while comprehensive 12-month data will be realized in the second half of 2019.

So by the end of this year, we should finally have at least some idea on whether JAK inhibitors can at least somewhat help patients with AGA (aka male pattern hair loss).

The trials will measure both safety and efficacy.

We already know beyond a doubt that JAK inhibitors significantly help people with the less common alopecia areata. As well as thos with its various related forms (alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis).

Stem Cell Hair Transplants Here in 2022?