Theracell: Cell Based Hair Regeneration via 3D Culturing

A new player has entered the hair loss world by the name of Theracell. Interestingly, the company is headquartered in the UK, but its laboratory is in Greece and its management team is entirely composed of people with Greek names.

More importantly, the management team is composed of very experienced PhDs. Even more importantly, the team members with photos are all somewhat balding. I tend to assume that balding people are usually more passionate about curing hair loss than are non-balding people, although that is of course not necessarily true.

Theracell

Theracell is trying to regrow hair via cell-based hair regeneration. They state that they will isolate stem cells from 10-20 follicles and use 3-D culturing to increase their numbers significantly prior to injecting them into the scalp as pre-follicular units. I wonder if their 3-D culturing method is similar to that developed by the renowned Colin Jahoda?

Although their cell-based hair regeneration page linked above did not specifically mention dermal papilla cells, the company is culturing dermal papilla cells per other parts of their website. They also list the name of their hair regeneration product as TC-RBD-5131, with “RBD” standing for Regenerative BioDermatology. The company is involved in a few other areas of medicine besides dermatology.

Perhaps I am being a bit too discerning, but on Theracell’s home page, I was quite surprised to see the word “Careers” in the top upper right spelled as “Carreers”. Quite a few photos on the site are not loading, while there are various other typos and inconsistencies. I would not be surprised if the company currently has few employees and limited funding as is often the case with some of the newer companies that I have covered on this blog.

But I will repeat…..thankfully, the management team is balding. It also seems like for a small country with just 11 million people, Greece is disproportionately represented in the hair transplant world. There are quite a few hair transplant surgeons based in Greece, and the well known hair transplant behemoth DHI Global is headquartered in that country.

As an aside and totally off-topic (except a connection with Greece) conclusion to this post, I have always felt that people who have a lot of body hair, especially back hair, tend to go bald much faster than people without much body hair and have said so before on this blog. I reached that conclusion over a decade ago based on what I observed in my own extended family and from what I have since observed in gym and swimming pool changing rooms.

Of course there are always exceptions to this rule, but the correlation is very strong. Many Greeks/Persians/Armenians are known to be very hirsute when it comes to their body hair, yet balding on their scalps. I started to notice this phenomenon over a decade ago when I was an avid tennis fan and followed Andre Agassi (Persian ethnicity) and Pete Sampras (Greek ethnicity). I am convinced that Pete Sampras has had a hair transplant since he retired.

30 thoughts on “Theracell: Cell Based Hair Regeneration via 3D Culturing”

  1. No, and I doubt for another few years if at all:-( Just my intuition rather than any evidence. The only positives I see are that 1) The management is balding, and that 2) Greece seems to be a hotspot for hair loss and hair transplants. I do not think Greece can flaunt EU regulations and speed up clinical trials…but maybe they may still leave the EU?! Or maybe there are areas in medicine where national laws take precedence over EU laws?

  2. That’s perfect. Ok.
    The question is: When we have finally a effective treatment without side effect for Androgenetic Alopecia? It’s time.

  3. It is my understanding that Greeks have the highest rates of baldness in the world.

    I’m 1/4 Greek, and appear to have inherited my good (awful) luck from my paternal (Greek) side; my mothers’ side has almost no hair loss… grandfather died at 81 with a full head of hair e.g.

    If I had to guess, Greeks probably have moderately higher DHT levels than most, and probably also tend to have significantly higher numbers of androgen receptors on hair follicles.

    Being quite a mix of other things– again, only 1/4 Greek, parts of me are fairly hirsuite (underside of legs), and parts have almost no hair at all (forearms especially, stomach), and others have average hair amounts (chest, legs). Wish I’d gotten the AR genes for my arm hair on my head instead!

    As far as the typos go– presumably English is a second language.

  4. The more the researchers the better. I really believe it could be solved in 2-3 years if we threw billions on research

    But I have given up on a cure for at least 20 years.

    1. I don’t think that is true!
      If you think about how much money there is in this cure, about how many men (also women) that need this treatment, there must be a lot of money in this research already! The people who finds the cure and breaks the code will be rich in hundreds of years! There is so much money in this industry that there have to be plenty of investors and such!

  5. I wish someone could make a graph of all the technologies coming out recently for hair loss and compare it to the past, to see if we are really seeing an acceleration or is the rate of innovation and research the same?

  6. Honestly, this is similar to what Replicel is pursuing; except they are looking to replicate the DPC via 3D Printing versus a media culture.

    I have a blade father and at 24 I am blessed to not have any significant signs of balding at all. Slightly thinning out but nothing bad at all.

    I have gone deep into the world of hairloss over the last 6 months as I am a very vain individual who would want to stop anything before it starts as well as get a cure developed before I even need it.

    I feel for many people who have been around for DECADES and have seen many promising developments shut down and put away.

    However, with all the technologies and funding that is actually beginning to come into the hair loss space it is my personal belief that we will have a viable cure by 2020 if not verrrry verrrry soon after.

    If you trade stocks like I do you would have read the recent Euro Pacific article on Replicel that shows a one year target price of 1.50 as it currently sits at 50c. The report goes in-depth on all of Replicels developments. Hairloss, Tendonitis, and Skin Rejuvenation.

    I have been in touch with management and they have a very good reason for their current delays including the media culture they very previously using went out of production which delayed their progress by 12 months.

    As well I understand many companies may have found a cure and were then bought out and the acquiring company usually shuts down the hair research department and focuses on skin care or other areas.

    However Shisedio in Japan is the 3rd largest cosmetics company on earth who have given replicel 5 million with another 30 million to come. As well they hold the rights to RCH-01 in the eastern world. The¥ are also beginning phase 2 trials which will guaranteed based on developments in media culturing and other aspects of the DPC multiplication produce 50% better results than phase 1.

    When this works Shisedio will not be bought by anyone and will have the political power to be able to launch this product at least in China Korea and Japan.

    Once INITIAL Phase 2 is completed by approx Sept 2016. They will be allowed to not market the procedure, but offer it to people willing to go ahead with it.

    I am extremely confident that the DPC multiplication wether it is through cultured multiplication or 3D will be the first real solution on the market.

    Yes StemCells maybe the Future but with so much red tape around the science in that feild. DPC multiplication will be the first REAL PERMANENT non libido or other major side effect FULL ON CURE! Without taking Pills Potions or Lotions that mess you up.

    I know my lack of time in this industry may lead me to be slightly naive or overly optimistic; however I feel with the progression of the tech and the amount of increased interest in this field. It is only a very short time away.

    1. I can understand why an older crowd may feel as if though a solution is nowhere near the horizon, growing up in another world from me altogether.

      However, I am deeply invested in many up and coming biotech’s and assure you the things some of these companies are now developing in 2015 are so futuristic you would think it was the year 3000.

      Hold on my people, we will make it before you know it.

    2. Pete it sounds like you have down your research. Can you simply when you believe the next treatment will be available to the public?
      Thank you

      1. My feeling is that after the 1st year of the 3 year Phase 2 that is starting supposedly in May; if all goes on shedule; Shisedio will have a enough data to see if they will go ahead with providing the procedure to the public upon request, or if they will do another 12 months of testing/r and d. I say Sept 16 to take in account any delays they may or not face but if everything goes as smooth as Phase 1, we should see clinical availability in Japan Start of 2017. If they wait for 24 months of testing then Start of 2018. Ether way I truly believe this will be the route to a real cure, and a full on retail version should be out by 2020-2025 at the absolute latest. That’s just me being realistic. Could it happen before then, absolutely. Could stem cells come before then, possibly. What are the chances of that? Not high but still a reality. But ether way a cure is well on its way. They are looking in the right direction. If everything rolls smoothly Japan will have RCH-01 on the market by 2018 while it undergoes Phase 3. Which at that point after enough people get it at the start of 17′ pending best case senario, we will have enough feed back as to its large scale effectiveness. I for one would get the procedure before it’s even needed. My dad would love that as an Xmas gift lol. Thankfully I have wealthy friends in Japan whom I have been meaning to go and visit for many years now. This would be the perfect reason. :) See Tokyo, and cure my non existent but definitely one day to be MPB.

        Cheers!

        1. It’s not about how well funded replicell is. They need to have the technology, they need to have a breakthrough. We simply don’t know how to treat this condition yet. Specially, for those who have lost a large amount of their hair, there is a need for a revolutionary product unlikely of coming in near future. Replicell, knows it well. That’s why they gradually moved from hair loss to other areas of treatment. It’s because they are almost confident that their hair loss product won’t be super effective. Now they want to have enough in their plates so they won’t go bankrupt. If you notice, they have a also shown aslight but gradual change of focus. Simply put, the science to completely reverse hair loss still does not exist and it’s not about the extent of funding. I’m a bit optimistic on igf-1 creams but that’s likely will be something as effective or may be a bit more than dht inhibitors, as both of these things will have the same mechanisms of function, basically.

    3. I understand your point of view and very optimistic towards the cure. I see you have done some research and as well I’m hoping some kind of cute will be on the market soon. Thank god for admin having this forum and always updating with honest info.

      1. For sure. The last company that was on the Hair Multiplication path was Aderans. Yes they were bought up and they stopped pursuing a solution for hair loss because the new investors were not seeing a return on that department and decided to can the operations. However it is unknown who exactly bought them up. Seeing they were not a large company by any means I would not be surprised if a subsidiary of a large US pharma stepped in and shelved the product and research.

        Like I said before. Call it crazy. But if I ran a multi billion dollar operation that was under threat because of some small biotech making leads. I would do the exact same thing.

        The only difference in this case is that Shisedio is worth $9.8 billion dollars and investing into finding the cure for MPB very very heavily with a brand new 75,000sqft facility.

        I know the admin wrote in a post

        https://hairlosscure2020.com/lessons-from-aderans-and-intercytexs-hair-multiplication-failures/

        to be very wary of the past. However the biggest factor facing these companies that went under was lack of funding.

        Last time I checked Shisedio dosnt need any outside funding which is what gives me the biggest sign of confidence. Plus they are only allowed to sell RCH-01 in Japan China and Korea.

        Now a large player could come in and buy Replicels Patent to RCH-01 in all other countries and shelve it, sure. But Shisedio is the biggest company in history to publicly dedicate itself to this extent to ACTUALLY TRYING to find a cure. Not talking about it for sh*ts and giggles to get some PR or a stock boost.

        The fact is Im more confident about Shisedio and the path they are heading down than even Replicel. Even Shisedios IGF cream looks to be promising with less sides than Fina and Monox.

        I feel sorry for those who have been burned time and time again and until a cure is here this is all just speculation but you can’t treat all these companies as if they are they same.

        As time moves forward so do the circumstances and in biotech 2015; being upset about a failed idea or attempt to find a cure for MPB in 2011 or 12; is like an African American living in a middle class home with all the opportunity to do anything he wants in his life (doctor, lawyer, president etc.) and complain that his back hurts from his great great great great great great great great grand father getting his back whipped in 170…whenever.

        If anyone has anything logical up for debate or points they would like to logically interject I am all ears. :)

        Cheers!

        1. BTW don’t be surprised if when a cure does come it is astronomically expensive for the first 20 years like almost another revolutionary tech.

          Thankfully Im blessed. But that could be another thing to consider is if it will be economically feasible for a person to get the operation. Hey a 100 grand is steep but you only live once and I’d want to have a full head of hair.

          Thats most likely to be the case as Shisedio offers many products just like Fina and Monox that they would want to keep selling as low cost alternatives to a certain demographic. Actually to 99% of people.

          All in all, you got to pay to play.

  7. Well what I heard is that fin and minoxidil their patents soon will expire, so I’m hoping some new company will come up with something better then them without any side effect. Propecia works really well but their sides are unbearable for me and some people that’s why I gave it up. The only concern is that its a $3billion market per year and I think it’s regulated by shutting down all this small companies that try to come up with positive cures for MPB. I always fear that larger companies buy them out so they can’t have a permanent solution to hair loss and in the other hand we suffer from it. I just hope by 2020 something will be on the market to serve the public without any glitches or sides. We deserve better beside we are paying money for it and we not animals to have everything regulated by this large billionaire idiots. But I fee that a large company will make breakthrough with a cure because they would want a hand in the billion $ per year market.

    1. I’m not sure a patent on propecia would stop anyone (who could) from releasing something better/side-effect free…. you may misunderstand patents.

  8. Admin: If you have some free time, please look into “Hair regrowth in alopecia areata patients following StemCell Educator therapy” published online 5/20/15. Please let us know your thoughts on this. Many thanks

    1. Hi Ashley, I saw that article mentioned on one of the forums, but the stem cell results on hair growth are not as impressive as what we have seen with the cancer and arthritis drugs in the past year. If those drugs lead to no major side effects, then we might be looking at a cure for alopecia areata already being here.

  9. Hey, admin

    I think we need to start a campaign to make a group to support creating the first transplantable hair follicle cloning project.

    I am a scientist, with related expertise and I think it is possible to clone a hair follicle. It just needs more momentum, as only few labs in the whole world are working on this problem.

    Hair loss research is underfunded, despite what billionaires might say. [http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2013/03/14/does_baldness_get_more_funding_than_malaria.php]
    Also, there are very few scientists are working this, despite its huge market and necessity.

    I’m seriously believe that aforementioned can be fruitful in bringing the first true bioengineered hair follicle into the market.

    Thank you

    1. That sounds like an interesting idea, but I am not too keen to start a funding campaign via this blog. A better option would be to post about it on all the hair loss forums out there….in fact I know they tried 1 or 2 fundraising campaigns on the hair loss forums in recent years. At best, they end up raising a few thousand dollars it seems, which won’t go far at all:-(

  10. Dear Admin, I think theracell is going to launch a product very soon. Please see their website. 1000 euro too much and i think they wouldn’t cost so much for this product if it is not worthy.

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