In 2022, I wrote a post about the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) to discover new hair loss drugs. This phenomenon has really grabbed attention this week. First, we heard about Absci (US) raising $100 million for its generative AI-developed hair loss drug ABS-201 (after positive interim Phase 1 clinical trial findings). And now I discuss a brand new company called RE:YOU (US).
RE:YOU: AI-Enabled Discovery of Small Molecules for Hair Follicle Rejuvenation
Several days ago, a new US-based company named RE-YOU (or Re:You) was covered in BioSpace. They announced promising preclinical research in relation to the AI-enabled drug discovery of four novel molecules for hair growth. Each of these four molecules targets a distinct biological pathway involved in hair follicle growth and the scalp environment. All four molecules were evaluated in primary human cell systems and human hair follicle organoid models.
Moreover, the scientists behind this discovery published a lengthy pre-print paper in bioRxiv on June 9, 2026. It is titled:
“AI-enabled discovery of small molecules targeting complementary pathways for hair follicle rejuvenation.”
RE:YOU has named the four molecules as follows:
- NV-623 and NV-624. Both support and “energize” dermal papilla cell viability and proliferation. Each molecule supposedly showed 30% greater hair growth in comparison to minoxidil.
- NV-273. Inhibits prolyl hydroxylase domain protein 2 (PHD2), activates hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and increases secretion of VEGF-A and lactate. All of this is supposed to benefit the scalp hair growth environment, circulation and regenerative signaling. Interestingly, the massively hyped Pelage Pharmaceuticals’ PP405 hair growth product works by boosting lactate production.
- NV-1065. A non-steroidal inhibitor of 5α-reductase, the enzyme responsible for converting testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT). The later is the key cause of male pattern hair loss. The researchers claim that this molecule suppresses DHT to a similar extent as dutasteride. Amazing if true.
RE:YOU classifies its portfolio of multi-pathway hair growth molecules under the brand name NOVOGRO™.
Someone has written a very lengthy article on minoxidil vs Novogro that might be worth a read. I did not have the time or motivation to go through it as yet.
Key quote from the BioSpace article:
“Using a combination of machine learning, graph neural networks, structure-based virtual screening, and experimental validation, researchers screened more than 20 million compounds and identified four lead candidates with distinct mechanisms of action.”
All of this sounds very interesting due to the involvement of AI-led drug discovery. Especially if the company can deliver something brand new to topically inhibit scalp DHT levels (without causing any of the potential side effects of oral dutasteride).
But at the moment, I remain skeptical and would not be surprised if all we get is yet another new hair loss cosmeceutical product. If the pre-print article gets published in a reputable journal, I will get a bit more interested.
At the bottom of RE:YOU’s home page, they say that:
“A 150+ subject, 6-month, double-blinded, randomized controlled trial comparing NOVOGRO™ -powered serum (NV-273, NV-623, NV-624) with a minoxidil benchmark arm is currently underway.”
They hope that an interim dataset will be available by the end of July 2026. To me, a comparison with finasteride or dutasteride would be more interesting.
Note that this company and the study co-authors are in various ways affiliated with Integrated Biosciences and LK Innovations.
I had hopes on this bcoz the preprint really looked like they know what they’re dng but the marketing of the product is so weird. There were few comments and posts on reddit about this (which some later called out as AI generated) so I checked out their insta when i saw that and it had like 9 followers (mostly the ppl associated with the company) and the very next hr they had 2k followers and they were rapidly increasing in numbers every second and few hrs later they were at 8k I think and I checked these new accounts. Many had random similar sequences of numbers in usernames and the “new” tag to them. No followers and thousands of following. All these accounts based in iraq/india etc.,. So uk typical bot followers (now u cant really see the full list of followers but it looks like they r dialing back on bot accounts and have more real followers).
So that was weird to see..but more importantly they are hyping this up saying “it beats the current gold standard” but they compared it to 2% minoxidil only for 3months so that’s just misleading. And they are selling it for 140 dollars.
It’d be amazing if it works ofcourse.
Novogro has launched now:
https://getreyou.com/pages/science#clinical-trial
Yes shipping only inside USA. And it seems it is only marketed to women. Someone should ask them if they have men in mind.
They should shorten the name to NoGro, this is exciting? Just another cosmeceutical with marketing hype to join a long list of weak at best outcomes.
How did they do this without funding? I am assuming it will be a cosmeceutical because full clinical trials are insanely expensive and I doubt they have that kind of money at this point.
I guess its worth waiting to see results from their double blind study.
I’m no biologist, so can’t speak to the legitimacy of the data or the study as a whole but I’m usually pretty skeptical of preclinical studies in general…
That being said… these guys have got some balls running a 150+ person clinical comparing directly to minoxidil – I can’t think of anyone who has done that in recent years . Even the Pelage one only benchmarked against placebo. Shame there is no fin/dut comparison tho. Maybe in a future study….
This human follicle organoid model is also very, very interesting. It looks like Fig 4h DHT directly stopped the follicles from growing, but then with DHT + NV-1065 there is even more growth than DHT + dutasteride
Who knows how this will all translate to humans… but definitely one to watch…
They say its for women … Built in the lab, for women.
Yeah I saw that sentence on their site too. But if there is a Dutasteride like scalp DHT inhibition, I will buy it using a female intermediary :-)
More relevant, in the BioSpace article it says:
Thanks to “Ben” who first posted about this company. After 13 years and writing about 100 plus companies, I am always skeptical.
But the pre-print article seems very thorough and some of the co-authors have a lengthy history of research on Pubmed. Who knows!
Just to point out NOVOGRO doesn’t have NV-1065. That means it would still have to be coupled with fin or dut.
I think the NOVOGRO includes all 4 of the molecules, but probably the first combined formulation won’t have NV-1065.
Hopefully soon they’ll be included, it sounds like they already tested it so maybe they’re just testing solubility for a final formula?
So asked them when are they planing to launch in EU and they said at the end of the year.
Asked them when are they planning to add NV-1065 and they said that one will be added to men’s line of hair serum which they plan to launch in q1 2027. i am willing to try this maybe it will boost my topical fin/min results.
I bet your fin/min with boost your NOVOGRO or NOGRO for short, results.