Now we really have a reason to get rid of Kim Jong-un. South Korea just keeps on adding groundbreaking companies working on hair loss treatments. See my page on hair loss research around the world for some of the main names. My latest three blog posts all cover new groundbreaking work from South Korea. Truly remarkable and entirely unintentional.

CosmeRNA from Sirnagen Releasing in 2023

This post covers a new topical hair loss product called CosmeRNA, whose website is now live. It is made by siRNAgen (South Korea), a subsidiary of Bioneer (South Korea). I briefly covered this company in the past, but now it deserves its own post.

The reason I am writing this post is due to a great new interview with siRNAgen CEO Dr. June Park. Both these new developments were sent to me by a reader who wishes to remain anonymous. Key quote from Dr. Park (also see her Linkedin):

“The first SAMiRNA product will be available for sale in the first half of 2023. We had an unconventional route to commercialization by developing a hair loss cosmeceutical product. CosmeRNA, named after cosmetic RNA, provided an early validation of our platform’s potential as a topical cosmetic product for androgenetic alopecia (hair loss).”

They wil not need to conduct clinical trials since this is a cosmetic product! The actual release date is likely to be in early 2023 per another quote in the same interview. After first being done in South Korea, CosmeRNA’s safety study was repeated in Europe by Dermatest in 2022. Note that SAMiRNA is shelf stable in a solution for a year, so it can be applied topically.

Ms. Park anticipates the product launch to occur some time in early 2023. They will focus on the European market first due to the region’s more streamlined cosmeceutical trial and approval process. It is called Cosmetics Product Notification Portal (CPNP).

Note that I previously briefly covered siRNAgen Therapeutics in my post on OliX Pharmaceuticals. The latter is working on a hair loss cure involving RNA interference (RNAi) via asiRNA (asymmetric small interfering RNA). The aim is to reduce androgen receptor (AR) expression on the scalp.

SAMiRNA, Androgen Receptor and Hair Growth

siRNAgen is also working on reducing AR expression and regrowing hair. However, it is doing so via treatment with self-assembled micelle inhibitory RNA (SAMiRNA) nanoparticle-type siRNA. See their site for more on small interfering RNAs (siRNA).

They published an important study on this in Nature Journal in January 2022. The encouraging title of this paper is worth posting: “Weekly treatment with SAMiRNA targeting the androgen receptor ameliorates androgenetic alopecia.”

The product they use for androgenetic alopecia is a topical called AR68. It is classified as a cosmetic ingredient and will be called Cosmerna-68. In the above mentioned paper, they have before and after photos of a patient that I pasted below. The chart on the right shows the actual percent improvement with AR68 0.5mg/ml treatment versus placebo. They also state the following:

“In the low-dose (0.5 mg/ml) clinical study, AR68 was applied three times per week for 24 weeks, and through quantitative analysis using a phototrichogram, we confirmed increases in total hair counts. In the 24-week long high-dose (5 mg/ml) clinical study, AR68 showed average additional hair growth of 1.3-1.9 hairs/cm2 per month, which is comparable to finasteride. No side effects were observed. Therefore, SAMiRNA targeting AR mRNA is a potential novel topical treatment for AGA.”

Edit: The higher dose AR68 5mg/ml before and after photos are here.

Is this a miracle? Most likely not for most severaly balding people people. However, just as with finasteride, some people could see stellar results. And for those who are just starting to go bald, this could be a much needed non-DHT inhibiting product with few if any side effects.

I am not a big believer in cosmetics, but this latest interview with siRNAgen CEO June Park is encouraging. She comes across as very intelligent and sincere.