Prolactin, BAY 1158061, Bayer

Prolactin, Bayer and Hair Loss

44 Comments

Update: See my new 2022 post on Hope Medicine’s clinical trials for HMI-115. Some great initial results and fundraising goals met.

Update: Seems like the Bayer and Hope Medicine partnership I discussed in this post was in relation to the former’s BAY 1158061. The product is a potent monoclonal prolactin (PRL) receptor antibody.

Prolactin and Hair

I have read in the past that very high pituitary hormone prolactin (PRL) levels (hyperprolactinemia) can cause hair loss. However, the research is not totally conclusive as far as I can tell. Moreover, a lot of the existing studies seems to look at alopecia areata, stress related hair loss, or pituitary gland disorders. Rather than the dominant form of hair loss: androgenetic alopecia. Nevertheless, perhaps there is more to this subject matter than I originally thought based on the below development.

Moreover, some detailed studies have supported targeting PRL to regrow hair in androgenetic alopecia sufferers. For example, this one from 2006 concludes that new therapeutic strategies for the management of hormonal hair loss in men and women could make use of recently developed PRL-R antagonists.

Bayer and Hope Medicine Collaboration

A new biopharmaceutical company from China named Hope Medicine (HopeMed) has entered into a partnership with Bayer (Germany). It could have significant positive implications for hair loss sufferers (and also for women with endometriosis).

Hope Medicine will develop and commercialize a human antibody targeting the PRL receptor for the treatment of male and female pattern hair loss. See Bayer’s patent for a prolactin receptor antibody for male and female pattern hair loss.

According to the above news, data published by a Bayer team and others points to a “yet hardly recognized role of prolactin/prolactin-receptors signaling” in male and female pattern hair loss disorders.

Key quote regarding the antibody drug that has already been developed and gone through Phase 1 trials:

“The antibody was effective in stimulating hair growth in aged stump-tailed macaques. It nearly doubled the number of terminal hairs after 6 months. Even in previously fully bald areas, and showed a sustainable impact even after 2 years post treatment. Notably, the stump-tail macaque model is considered one of the rare predictive animal models for male and female pattern hair loss in humans.”

The current research and drug development study is a result of a close collaboration between Bayer scientists and researchers at the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM) at Peking University. The main scientist involved at IMM seems to be Dr. Rui-Ping Xiao. More on her in this interview.

More on Hope Medicine’s funding status and other related info.

44 thoughts on “Prolactin, Bayer and Hair Loss”

  1. Does it only need two trials in Asia? Have a good feeling about this with a big pharmaceutical company involved

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  2. Prolactin is released after ejaculation. So for guys who masturbate a lot and are loosing hair, there MIGHT be a link !

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      1. Women have increased prolactin generally when they suffer from PCOS (a type of hormonal imbalance). One of the signs of PCOS is AGA. So.. there might be something there…

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    2. The amount of prolactin released from ejaculation is trivial compared to the amount that actually starts causing problems (like from a tumor).

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  3. This goes back to Ray Peat and Danny Roddy.. Korean Ginseg has been reported to dramatically reduce prolactin too. Lots of anecdotal evidence pointing to results lately.. BTW they sae propecia has some properties that kick starts progesterone and lowers prolactin. BtW does anyone know if a doctor in NY offers dutasteride mesotherapy?

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  4. Are there any drugs that lower prolactin available now? I’m sure messing with prolactin levels daily will give sides like lowering shy gives sides. The never ending cycle of baldness cures lol. If this hasn’t started trials then shhh…we are looking at 8 to 10 years. This could be the next hope for the new generation of mpb sufferers.

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    3. Adderall. Cocaine. Probably Bupropion. Anything that increases dopamine, I guess. Dopamine inhibits circulating prolactin. Would they work? Seems like we’d have reports of ADHD-sufferers with slowed MPB. Or that people on antipsychotics experience hairloss (I think we do?). No action at prolactin receptors, though. Maybe effect requires receptor blockade, not lower circulating hormone. I think prolactin is involved in other signaling processes, including JAK/STAT.

      BTW, not endorsing experimentation.

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18477617

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  5. My T and DHT volume are normal but my prolactin is five times higher than the normal range upper limit. I experienced diffuse hair thinning. This article seems to point me to another direction, which looks more promising than male pattern’s hormone treatment which reduces DHT.

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  6. Seriously each time a “new cure” pops out targeting proteins or hormones or who knows what else. All say that they found a new cure and stuff while in reality we don t actually see any progress, no numbers no results no data that something WORKS FOR REAL, but in the meantime we have like 1001 cures starting with McDonald s fries and other BS like that.

    They have the technology for quite some years now I could say for a decade or maybe better. They just dont want.Period.
    It s better to milk out to the last cent of minoxidil/Rogaine/Propecia which don t even work properly on everyone, instead of releasing the actual cure. We have the cloning technology and not only, what are they waiting for? A miracle? Motivation?
    Maybe we should stop giving attention to all these “studies” and point and some company that has results, pictures,data anything that you can actually see and make sense.
    Tbh I lost my hope with this. We won t see a cure anytime soon. Reason? Because they don t want. There are too many interests of huge companies who sell their bs drugs which don t even work that well or have side effects that you rather don t want to use them and yet they re approved for using safely. Interesting, even tho some people complained about permanent effects.

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  7. I’m with mr. R. All these new breakthroughs are great and all but they don’t amount to anything ever. There was more progress between 1980 to 2000 with hair loss treatmemts than from 2000 to now. Rogaine and Propecia. They had less technology and knowledge about mpb than researchers have now yet we can’t come out with a better drug. It’s all bs. Mr. R is 100%right. They want to squeeze out every penny before releasing a better treatment. Money is what they care about.

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  8. Mr R is wrong. It’s not because they (whoever “they” are) don’t want us to have a cure, it’s because they don’t have one. They are bald as well remember, and grey and wrinkly.

    MJones is right at the end. Money is all they care about, which is why they are looking for a cure. The market for a cure is enormous compared to these futile treatments that fight the ocean with grains of sand.

    As Bill Gates said in 1999, more money is invested looking for a baldness cure than a vaccine for malaria. Did you know that 1 in 7 people who have ever been born have been killed by a mosquito!

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  11. Update from Frequency Therapuetics. This is the company that uses progenitor cells to activate stem cells. This trial apparently successfully activated stems cells in the ear to regrow ear hair. They are actively studying this technology for androgenic alopecia.

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    1. Im very excited about this company Frequency, this could well be it, especially for reversing greying..Could b a double whammy out of the blue :) ..it uses autologous cells too so now real risk

      Also received $42M in series B funding and a 2M US dept of defence grant to develop the hearing loss product

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      1. Totally agree Mutruk. I’ll be watching for details to see if they disclose the increase in number of ear hairs. I like the PCA approach since it seems to circumvent the stem cell culturing stumbling block where cultured stem cells lose their inductivity. Frequency says they can produce an unlimited supply of progenitor cells in vitro. They have already been studying PCA application for androgenic alopecia so with the funding they have, and if this trial is as successful as it appears, I think a trial for aa might not be that far off. If they can identify the right molecule, it’s the same application, just a different type of hair.

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  13. Cloning will be here before this that’s almost not even an opinion at this point is how late they are solving this pharmaceutically. I’m living in los Angeles now every time I see San Diego signs I realize I’m only 2 hour drive from Terskikh who apparently has still been putting work into it.

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    1. Much like many members on this forum, my first choice would be that the cure comes out in a cheap none-pain easy-to-apply topical form available at some clinic less than 3 hours travel from my house.
      But for me, if it turns out to be an expensive painful multi-injection cure available only in Damascus or Baghdad I will still take it.

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  14. Cure? I’d be happy with an effective side effect free treatment. Let’s not get greedy now fellas lol.

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  15. Follica, SM, Sisheido and Histogen. This what we have coming for us with the best potential. Everything else is 10 year plus or won’t ever get released. I know I’m a broken record player but this is my gut feeling. Low sides from what we know, easy to manufacture and late stage trials. Very curious on Sisheido for their presentation at hair loss congress.

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  16. RiverTown Therapeutics Inc.
    What happens with these guys? they have some impressive pictures on their site…

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    1. There are studies that are pretty recent 2018 40 participants.. 20 control 20 Red Korean Ginseng. Positive results for AGA.. I will see if I can post it.

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  18. Rivertown sounded like it would have potential but after seeing their pictures I was not impressed. Main reason being the quality of the pictures were distorted. Initial pic being bright and clear and the result picture being dark and not clear. When I see that it shows you their product is garbage. I see people on hlt and other forums shown clear excellent before and after pictures with their dermarolling and other treatments progress. Amateurs with better pics than companies. Get what I am saying?

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    1. Don’t b so sure, they recently completed a study with University of Alabama, led by a Dr.Harris, into greying and Rivertowns RT1640 molecule.

      There is definitely something cooking, but I also agree something is holding it back for some reason.

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  20. Mjones,..histogen? Really? Still on that empty broken down train? Its okay to wave the white flag mjones.

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  23. Diana Harbort, CEO of Cassiopea, said: “We are very pleased by these excellent results which show that our topical anti-androgen is efficacious in the treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia with side effects similar to placebo and importantly without any systemic side effects. Based on these results, we plan to meet with the FDA mid-year to discuss the planned six-month Phase III trials in men. Hopefully, we will begin our Phase III program in 4Q 2019.”

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  25. Interesting, but seems somewhat incongruent with other existing examples of those with higher prolactin levels. For instance, women tend to naturally have higher prolactin levels than men. Also, a male to female transgender person taking estrogen often sees a spike in their prolactin levels, yet their hairless is halted or even reversed whilst on hormone therapy. I think if anything, hyperprolactinemia may cause hair loss separate from AGA.

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  26. Replicel patents granted for Dermal Injector and will launch next year …

    https://www.replicel.com/news/replicel-secures-several-new-patents-for-its-regenerative-medicine-technologies

    “RepliCel’s dermal injector is the Company’s nearest-term commercial asset expected to be approved for market launch next year in Europe and all other countries accepting such CE Marks including Hong Kong. RepliCel’s partner, YOFOTO holds the license to market the injector in Hong Kong where it plans to launch the product immediately upon registering the CE mark there.”

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