have heard a lot about companies involved in finding a hair loss cure via PGD2 inhibition, PGE2 increase, wounding, hair cloning, hair multiplication, hair regeneration, dermal papilla cell manipulation, fat cell manipulation, newer anti-androgen development and more. Samumed seems to be the most likely company in the world at tackling hair loss via the Wnt/Beta-Catenin signaling pathway and therefore it is worth following the company even if it keeps releasing information in bits and pieces.
As far as the latest press release that I mentioned at the start of the post goes, the key sentence regarding Phase II clinical trials for the company’s SM04554 topical solution is that the product:
“Showed statistically significant increases for both objective outcome measures: non-vellus hair count (a primary outcome measures) and hair density (a secondary outcome measures), using the pre-specified statistical model.”
I am not overly excited about reading the above, as “statistically significant” could just mean yet another Minoxidil or Propecia (or even Bimatoprost — see Results) type treatment. However, with no evidence of significant side effects, SM04554 could be a great product if it enhances the effects of existing treatments (as opposed to different treatments cancelling each other’s benefits out and impacting the same hair positively, even if working via totally different mechanisms).
The most encouraging thing I read was that in in vivo animal models, SM04554 has shown to generate new hair follicles. This is a very rare outcome for any hair loss medication or treatment, as in most cases existing hair is made stronger and recently miniaturized hair is brought back to life. We are long overdue for hair growth success stories in animal models being replicated in homo sapiens.