BioViva, Gene Modification, Gene Therapy, Liz Parrish

Liz Parrish Treated With Gene Therapy to Reverse Aging

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On rare instances I blog about medical issues that are either unrelated to hair loss or perhaps/potentially related to hair loss.  This post is an example of the latter, since gene therapy could end up also being the ultimate solution for hair loss and be safe enough to be used regularly for cosmetic purposes...although I would never go through it for such reasons.

Update: Liz Parrish updates us in this October 15 video, and she is not pleased at some of the negative coverage she has received.

Update: This story is now getting more coverage. The best new articles as of October 14 are from MIT Technology Review: "A Tale of Do-It-Yourself Gene Therapy" and from IEET: "Ethics in Treatment With Telomerase."

BioViva CEO Elizabeth (Liz) Parrish has been in the news a lot lately and I highly recommend viewing three of her recent videos and a podcast interview from this year that I have embedded all the way at the bottom of this post. BioViva seems to be a legitimate and respectable company based on its stellar advisory board. Ms. Parrish herself is extremely intelligent and well spoken as you will be able to see in the videos at the end of this post. I also find her to be very sincere. Her 20 years of being a vegetarian and her initial interest in childhood diseases are further positives in the compassion department in my opinion. Hopefully that translate to her really meaning what she says when it comes to gene therapy being available for all at a low cost or for free in the future.

Earlier today, Ms. Parrish participated in a very interesting AMA on Reddit that is worth a thorough browse.  I was watching/reading the Ask Me Anything (AMA) live, and got a major shock when Ms. Parrish announced that she recently became the first patient (“patient zero”) to get gene therapy to reverse aging using her company’s proprietary technology.  She underwent this therapy several weeks ago (at least based on the date of the initial press release from September 30) , and announced on Reddit for the first time today that she herself was “patient zero.”  Apparently her whole procedure was filmed by a professional film crew and I am hoping that it turns into a documentary that airs on national tv.

Below is the initial announcement from Ms. Parrish in response to a set of four questions from a Redditor.  She answered many other questions about the exact nature of her treatment during the AMA.

Liz Parrish Reddit AMA.

I was surprised that Liz Parrish was the first patient to undergo this treatment, especially since she is only 44 years old and can perhaps afford to wait for a few years prior to getting gene therapy.   After all, BioViva has a lab in Colombia and has received interest from clinics in the Bahamas and Mexico per the third video below.  I assumed that BioVia would initially be testing their anti-aging gene therapy on Colombians or on aging/sick people from around the world who were willing to fly to Colombia/Bahamas/Mexico and so on.  Ms. Parish claims that she felt it was the ethical thing to do to get herself treated first before trying this on other people.

From a hair loss perspective, Ms. Parish mentions that hair loss and gray hair are a sign of aging in the Reddit and in one of the below videos if I recall correctly.  Perhaps this genetic treatment when perfected as much as possible will lead to a reversal in gray hair and regrowth of lost hair?  Even if this particular gene therapy does nothing for hair, it will represent a watershed moment in the use of genetic modification in humans.  Many hair loss researchers have stated that gene therapy is the ultimate solution to hair loss.

It should be noted that there are already many gene therapy treatments undergoing clinical trials on humans, but this one was the first one that was done to reverse aging and probably the first one that was filmed and will hopefully be shown on tv some day soon.  Moreover, Ms. Parrish is going to update us on her overall health and condition on a regular basis.  She claims that she feels more energetic and sleeps better at the moment in comparison to prior to getting injected, but it is too early to make any conclusions. We are finally moving from mice and rats to humans  (frustrated mice and rat hating long time hair loss forum members and blog readers really have to see the cartoon at 19:15 in the first video and Liz Parrish’s comments immediately thereafter).

From July 2015:

From August 2015:

And finally, below is a great podcast interview in which I love the fact that she is highly critical of the patent-minded and money-minded modern pharmaceutical/medical industry complex.

Allergan, ATX-101, Bimatoprost, Kybella, KYTH-105, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, Setipiprant

Is it Time to buy Allergan (AGN) Stock?

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Note: I am no expert in stock market trading and I currently hold no Allergan (AGN) shares in my portfolio.  If I were a bit wealthier, I would seriously consider buying a few hundred shares of the pricey AGN stock.

FYI — The most important part of this lengthy post is probably right towards the end in red.

I have discussed Allergan (of Botox fame) several times on this blog during the past year. The company has had an extremely eventful 2015.  In March of this year, it was acquired by Ireland’s Actavis, but the acquiring company then changed its name to Allergan, probably because the latter is so much more widely known than the former. More importantly for us hair loss sufferers, in June of this year Allergan acquired Kythera Biopharmaceuticals.  As a result, Allergan now holds the rights to three potentially blockbuster products (first two are related to hair loss):

  1. Bimatoprost (prostamide — aka prostaglandin-ethanolamide  — analog).  This is not exactly a PGE2 analog as is often mistakenly cited on internet forums.  Sales will depend on the clinical trial results that I hope will be published any day in the next several months.  If effective, I would guess that sales will be drastically higher than lower-dose Bimatoprost products currently sold by Allergan = i.e., Latisse (around $150 million annual sales) and Lumigan (around $600 million annual sales). Maybe $1 billion in 2017 sales if the product really has a better effect than Minoxidil and it is released in 2016?  I am just throwing around numbers here so a financial expert can perhaps post comments with better forecasting.
  2. Setipiprant (KYTH-105 — selective oral antagonist to the PGD2 receptor).  Still several years before clinical trials for hair loss are completed, but numerous other clinical trials for other conditions have been completed on humans with no major side effects. Maybe this pre-existing safety profile will speed up Allergan’s trials, especially in combination with newer regulations from the 21st Century Cures Act.  Kythera also submitted an Investigational New Drug Application (IND) for Setipiprant to the US FDA a few weeks ago.  If extremely effective, sales would easily hit a few billion dollar per year in say 2020, but this is too much speculation so early in the process.  Note: Numerous people on hair loss forums are already testing Setipiprant, but I have not closely followed how they are getting their product and whether its topical or oral.  If there are many positive anecdotal reports on this in the next year, I will have to seriously consider borrowing money to buy at least several hundred shares of AGN stock.
  3. KybellaTM (ATX -101 — a patented formulation of deoxycholic acid) injected into the face to eliminate double chins.  This product was approved by the FDA in April 2015 and is already in use at 100s of clinics in the US.  Unlike the case with Botox, results from Kybella supposedly last for years.  Waiting lists are already being created in countries that have not yet been granted licenses to use Kybella.  It is worth following realself Kybella reviews to see if the product is all that it is touted to be (keeping in mind fake or flaky reviews). One article I read suggests that Allergan expects annual sales of $500 million for this product in a few years, and the patents on it run out around 2025-2030. However, there are some sources that suggest that that this product could be used for other purposes (love handles?) illegally/with doctor approval too.  Is it possible that Allergan can make much more in Kybella sales than they expect?  Moreover, it seems like it is fairly simple and cheap to manufacture this Kybella product.

Note: Allergan’s total company sales in the first half of 2015 were $10 billion.

Like many hair loss forum members, I have been much more optimistic about Setipiprant than about Bimatoprost.  Clinical trial results of Bimatoprost used at a higher dose on scalp hair have been delayed for many months, although that does not necessarily mean that the results were too weak.  I should note that I have read some positive testimonials about Bimatoprost on hair loss forums, and it is almost impossible that an Allergan representative is posting such testimonials.  Hopefully Bimatoprost turns out to be at the very least as effective as Minoxidil, while Setipiprant turns out to be even more effective and capable of growing new hair (or turning vellus hair back into terminal hair).

Is Allergan Preparing to Release Bimatoprost for Hair Loss?

In any event, the main reason for writing this post was because several days ago a member on the Baldtruthtalk forums posted an interesting link regarding Allergan expanding its plant in Waco, Texas.  The expansion is due to the addition of new processing equipment for packaging.  While the company’s VP of operations declined to name the products for which the packaging would be needed, there is a good chance that it might be for Bimatoprost. The plant already makes weaker versions of Bimatoprost (Latisse and Lumigan).  Moreover, the VP of operations said something very interesting:

We will be producing new packaging for new and existing products, and we could see the need to hire more people by the third quarter of 2016 if demand for these products increases.

Blog readers who live in Texas, please go to Waco and do some ground research!  Buy one of the workers at this plant lunch and beer to get some inside information.  Look around for any paper trails or early arrival of packaging material labeled with anything with the words “Bimatoprost” or “hair” in it.  It might seem like I am joking but I would definitely do this if I were living in Texas.  Why not spend a day in Waco?