CarthroniX: New Company
In this article we will take a look at the pipeline of Carthronix, a new biotech company developing therapeutics for stem cell activation and tissue regeneration.
CarthroniX is based in Lancaster, CA, a city in northern Los Angeles County. The company was founded by Dr. Denis Evseenko MD, PhD, and Dr. Ben Van Handel and has roots in the prestigious universities of USC and UCLA. There are currently seven indications listed in the CarthroniX pipeline, among them, hair loss and wound healing. New molecules being developed for hair growth are always a welcomed sight on Follicle Thought and I do like to keep an eye out for new wound healing therapies because of their potential use in hair transplant surgery.
Remember RCGD423 From The Lactate Study?
I recently got in touch with the team at CarthroniX to learn more about their plans for developing hair growth therapies and to get some background information on the molecules CX-01 and CX-02. As it would turn out, CX-01 is actually the RCGD423 molecule from the lactate dehydrogenase study which was published in late 2017 and received quite a bit of media attention. As I reviewed the study, I noticed that CarthroniX co-founder Dr. Denis Evseenko was a listed author. Below is a brief Q&A I conducted with CarthroniX to help the audience get to know them and their technology better.
Q&A With CarthroniX
FT: What is the mechanism of action of CX-01 & 02 and what led you to pursue treating hair loss with them?
CX : The CX family of small molecules targets a specific protein on our cells called gp130, which is the obligate co-receptor for all IL-6 family cytokines. We are able to modulate signaling outcomes downstream of this receptor, thereby driving anti-inflammatory and/or regenerative effects. Once we determined the mechanism of action of this family of compounds, it became obvious that they may have applications in many potential indications, including hair loss and/or hair regeneration.
FT: Is there any published data on CX-01 & 02 in regards to hair growth?
CX: We have published in Nature Cell Biology about the effects of CX-01 (RCGD423) on hair loss in mice. The short summary is that mice treated with CX-01 had hair follicles pushed into cycle (anagen) earlier and for longer durations when compared to non-treated mice. (see link above)
FT: What’s the current estimated timeline for development of CX-01 & 02?
CX: We are currently developing our pipeline around topical applications of CX-01, 02 with hair as a possible indication. Currently, we are aiming to have proof of concept studies in humans in late 2021 and then move into Phase 1 trials in 2022.
Special thanks to Dr. Amir Nobakht of CarthroniX for taking the time to share these insights with our audience. Dr. Nobakht also confirmed that his company would be interested in partnering with a larger pharmaceutical company to develop one of their hair growth molecules which would of course speed up clinical development and potentially offer a great asset for a larger company. CarthroniX has already spun out a luxury cosmetic skincare product from their research which has produced some good looking results in a small trial. I was told that a hair growth OTC product was possible at some point, but for now the company is focusing on the clinical route.
Posted in Hair Growth Treatment
I hope you all enjoy this new prospect for the meantime. We should also be hearing from Histogen within the next 2 weeks and shortly thereafter I expect to hear more on the Applied Biology minoxidil + booster trials. Cheers
Admin have You got any contact with Alexey from stemson th?
I have some contact with him, yes, but there’s no extra information he’s willing to give at the moment.
Admin did they start their preclinical trials on pigs?
A Bit off Topic, but what are your thoughts on the News about this new Potential stuff coming from Thailand?
The mangrove tree or whatever?
Thank you admin for sharing this.
Any news on follica and Brezulla phase 3 trail?
that sounds good. Good job admin. When can you expect the sale of therapy 16 from triple hair?
Thanks nobody. I am not exactly sure, let’s say late February for now and see what I hear in mid February.
Thanks a lot! I’m curious if there will be an alternative to minoxifil 🙂
Hello admin!
Since I’ve been using minoxidil for 10 years with moderate success, I had put my hopes on minoxiboost. Since TH-16 is now on the market at the same time, my question is whether the study data from April 2020 really justify a change to TH-16 for people who only partially respond to minoxidil? The data situation for triple hair would speak for a change.
best regards
Th16 doesn’t contain minoxidil or work in the same way. Triple hairs other product which is still in development does contain minoxidil. You will need to continue minoxidil if you decide to try TH16.
This is true OceanVibe, but Triple Hair also has mentioned and plans on putting out a version of their OTC with minoxidil as well.
thank you very much i really appreciate your advice. then would th-16 work as a supplement? Then I misunderstood the description of triple hair. So would it make more sense to use minoxiboost?
Keen for this one. Admin, keep us updated.
Thanks as always admin. Looking forward to seeing the news from Histogen, recently watched an interesting doc on stem cells (The God Cells – can be found on YouTube) and it got me thinking about histogen.. happy coincidence we’ll be getting an update.
For anyone in lockdown with not much to do, I’d highly suggest the doc!
Hope everyone is well!
How about that other Drug UK5099 from this study you talk about? As far as I remember this was already developed by Pelage Pharma. Any news about them?
I’m also interested in UK5099
About UK5099:
Yes, Pelage Pharma is developing analogs to UK5099. These will still be pharmaceutical drugs, though. At the moment, I don’t know their timelines, etc. Good question, guys.
Happy to see another company join the race . But its only at the begning , which we know its take far more then the company prediction .
Thanks for reporting the real hair loss therapy news Admin!
I appreciate that sentiment Yoda. Thank you
Any update on hairclone Admin? I’m based in the UK so planning to give it a go as soon as it becomes available, will be sure to document my experience and share with you and everyone else here.
I just heard from Paul Kemp this week, but no update on HairClone at the moment. To be honest, I don’t expect one until April-June, but will keep you and everyone updated when news arises.
Hey FT, have you seen This article? https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-79722-z
Hi Woofy, thanks for sharing. Did not see that one yet. Let me look into that and hopefully I will have a formal update to share soon.
I would just like to thank the Admin for doing such a fantastic job at keeping us all up to date with all the hairloss industry info. This is by far and away the best hairloss website on the internet.
The admin seems to almost instinctively know what updates we want to read about. The simple touches such as giving us a summary of what developments 2021 will bring us (in the previous post) was really appreciated. And although it may seem like a common sense thing to provide, nowhere else on the internet seems to have done so!
Great job Admin!
I appreciate your thoughtful comment BearlyEagle! It’s nice to know that my efforts are noticed and helpful to you. Thanks again 🙂
Great article admin! Hopefully this progress es along for all the younger 18 yr old mob sufferers on here. Are you able to get some info regarding histogen, samumed, follicum, Follica. Do you have any connections there?
I do have a contact at Samumed, what in particular are you looking to find out?
Hi Admin, if SM P3 goes as Samumed hopes, and they choose to launch the product; could u ask your contact at Samumed how long after P3 until they launch the product? Will it initially only be in Turkey and do they have to do additional work to launch in US? Been in hair loss since 2010. Seems like we’ve gotten nothing but hype and hope over last decade. Sad to realize we have had zero new treatments since Fin and Min…. aside from experimental compounds of course… seems like a million treatments work on mice and 0 on humans. Truly a soul crushing realization…
thanks.
@FollicleThought
If you have a contact with Samumed could you also please ask if their Phase 2/3 trial will be enough to apply a MAA with the European Medicines Agency?
I’ve seen a lot of talk about Turkey and the USA (FDA) but nothing about the EMA.
One year till phase one trials is optimistic, hope everything goes well for them.
Do you know about Dr. Barbara Marzani and her recent work on hair regrowth?
Yes, she is with the Giuliani company who does a lot of hair growth research.
Hi Admin, could you do a full Giuliani update? I dont know where to order the already released product and also would like to know about coming products or a timeline / pipeline. They have so much in work I lost overview.
Hi John, for the released WAY analog, see this article and refer to comments section for ordering links https://folliclethought.com/way-316606-product-release-update-2020/
what happened to river town?
Dwain- rivertown failed because it sucked from day 1. It was bunch of before after pics with different lighting and 8 new hairs of regrowth. I called it from day 1 that company had nothing. I still predict SM, Follica to be our next drugs in our stack.
The pictures from RiverTown might have sucked, but the formula definitely was a step above minoxidil, even if not a gigantic step. I’ve seen photos from bald heads which regrew some hair around the horseshoe, it didn’t seem to keep growing in indefinitely, but regrowing some hair on a NW7 is difficult to do. RT1640 would have been a good enhancer for a lot of people, not a ‘miracle’ or a cure, but it would have had use. Too bad it didn’t get funded a few years ago and pushed through to market.
Hi Admin, for Giuliani you mentioned “peer-reviewed article on a clinical trial of the chosen WAY-316606 analog will be publishing within the next several months before the launch of the product.” … will this be published any time soon? Are there before/after pics or any reports of people who used it? … Actually I dont speak Italian and they have many shampoos and stuff and I dont see which product should be the big deal now. I would guess if its the fanatstic product they would show as best selling product or as NEW or whatever but nothing on the site. Is it again such a italian bullshit company?
The peer reviewed article for Giuliani is listed in the comments of the link I just shared. Here it is again https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32939777/ I don’t have access to it and was not given a response when I emailed Giuliani for it. I figured at that point it was probably not too impressive.
John, it appears that this stuff is most likely useless. I would keep an eye on th16 from Triple Hair. Its about to be released. Perhaps it does something. Not a game changer but nevertheless. Perhaps useful in addition to proven existing treatments.
Admin, is it Yoda’s imagination or did I see a review/article on the shampoo that’s advertised on FT’s home page? I swear I read something but can’t find it now…or is senility kicking in? Maybe I just saw the ad and never an article.
Must be Yoda’s imagination? I was considering trying that shampoo as the one I typically order is out of stock for a while. I don’t think any shampoo can directly help with hair loss/growth despite claims made. I do thing they can help with itch, inflammation and create a more healthy scalp environment.
Hey Yoda, sorry just getting back to you now. There is a profile article on a HRL Shampoo, they are sponsors of Follicle Thought. Yeah, overall a shampoo is of course not going to regrow hair but I think they have a solid ingredients list and produce one of the best, if not the best shampoo option to support a hair growth regimen. https://folliclethought.com/professional-strength-hrl-shampoo/
Hi Admin, not sure why I couldn’t locate the article. I actually just ordered this shampoo from Amazon, we’ll see how it does with itch, flaking and inflammation. If it is any good (for Yoda) I’ll report back to the readers. Thanks for making me aware of the product!
Awesome, would love to see your review comment on the article itself. Best luck with it.
John Doe its prob bs buddy like most cosmetic approved stuff.
Admin- I think the investors saw exactly what rivertown could produce and it was not worth the fundin. It did no better than rogaine. I know nw7 who hopped on rogaine foam in their 60s and grew hair on top. It wasnt enough to make a difference just like rivertown. Follica has been funded well, samumed funded well and quickly by politicians too which is great because they got mad pull in the fda red tape. Follow the money and that will show which treatments move ahead…. rivertown was a two bit shop with mediocre results.
Rogaine doesn’t do this though https://folliclethought.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/image2-Copy-2.png I’m not doubting your story but minoxidil growing hair for a NW7 is a wild anomaly, it barely grows hair for NW5 and that’s just an objective fact. Regardless, my point stands, RT would be a slight improvement over minoxidil. Of course the results were mediocre, that doesn’t mean it’s not worth putting onto the market for the years until more powerful technologies make it through clinical trial processes.
True admin. I agree that anything is better than nothing, but investors saw that literally 8 new hairs wont make them money. Honestly not many people would shell out 100 bucks or more for rivertown with just barely better results. We need 50cm2 new terminal normal hair per cm2. That is where we start talking new effective hair loss treatment that will help us all from nw2 to nw7.
come on admin we want more articles….write please
If there’s nothing new to write about, then be patient dude. Progress in the Hair loss industry is incredibly slow. I’ve read every article on this site since 2016 and still patiently waiting till the day we finally get a article on FT titled: Hair loss cure has been finally released.
Thanks Twenti, yes real hair industry news does not come every other day. There will be more articles coming of course, it takes time. And YES I look forward very much to the day when a new bonafide treatment or cure article is written and published.
Hey admin, have you heard of this before https://www.qr678.in/ ? Seems kinda interesting!
@FollicleThought
Triple Hair have updated the TH16 release timeline to say early 2021 instead of Q1 2021 on their website. I imagine there’s a delay.
I’m not sure at what could be going on as I heard from their VP amount 2 weeks ago, but truly there’s not much ground between Q1 and still be considered “early 2021”, maybe a month tops?
@FollicleThought
I really don’t expect TH16 to be all that great and especially not out-perform Minoxidil like they state but it’d be great if you could ask for some efficacy figures like TAHC or TAHW instead of there Dense: High, Moderate or Low figures, which in reality don’t really mean anything when comparing with existing treatments.
Samumed might present Phase III at the Incos congress (11-14 March): https://www.indercos.org/
They gave a presentation about their Phase II results at the same congress in 2019.
@FollicleThought
Do you have contact with Cassiopea? I’d love to know what the reason for the decrease in efficacy for Breezula for all strengths were between the 6 – 12 months. A few theories say blocking the androgen receptor causes the body to upregulate the number of androgen receptors in the scalp.
There is a small, encouraging update about Pelage Pharmaceuticals, a company related to CarthoniX on the Updates page as of today 1/20 https://folliclethought.com/updates/
Isn’t jak-stat activation related to oncogenesis? specifically STAT2/5 although STAT 1 has the opposite effect.But i think they know what they are doing, hopefully its a safe treatment.
Surely they are doing toxicity studies on animals and have a reasonable idea of safety to even be pursuing it.
Thank you for your response sir. New to this hair loss journey,your website is one of the best source of hair loss news. Hope is what keeps us alive!
What is J Hewitt doing ?
Hi admin,any updates from insilico?
I just contacted them last week but no response, I believe they will get back in touch when they can. Most likely the company and the investors are keeping things quiet for a while.
Any chance you could do an article/update on new hair transplant technologies? I remember a few years a go a doctor was developing a scarless FUE method using key hole methods.. The fact that transplants are getting cheaper and better by the year could mean a more realistic treatment for most nw3+ people tout there.
I will put this on the list of articles to work on 3.
Thank you, future looks good with Deepmind solving the protein folding prediction problem ,but its better to not get up our Hopes too high.Do you know any other company who are using computational biology to discover a AGA drug?
BNGO may be able to help ^^
Hey admin what do you think of Stemson, could you email them and see if we can do an update q&a. I know they did one on hairlosstalk. a lot of us have questions on timelines, shape, color, release, density, and whether their lips cells work 99.9% of the time. Also what are your views on hair systems. if things got rock bottom, would you use them?
one question for stemson – how they create dht resistant hair from blood?
I like Stemson, I have been in touch with Dr. Terskikh and their CEO within the past year but they are not really up for doing a Q&A. They’re mostly busy and are partially owned by Allergan (lead investor) so they like to keep most of their work progress quiet. That being said, I will definitely keep in touch with them like I always do and try to get brief updates from time to time as they are available.
Regarding hair systems, I don’t have a big opinion on them one way or another. I’m curious to hear other members view on them. They’re not usually a first choice for most people but they do a good job if you are okay with the commitment it seems.
did you see Stemson is having an event In a couple days to give an exclusive update to investors. does anyone think they can get in. Also admin what are your thoughts on timelines for Stemson?
https://www.linkedin.com/company/fortunis-capital/
Speaking of Fortunis – if you go to their website, they have an “our investees” section and case study 3 clearly focuses on Stemson. In this section it says “Time to human clinical trials within the next 18 months.”, which really surprised me. I’m not trying to jump on the hype train here but I’m cautiously optimistic.
Exactly that statement was already made in 2019 on their website, so the goal back then was to start the trial in 2021. This was also said by CEO Hamilton, so the statement is definitely legit.
It’s quite probable, that they will start their human clinical trial this year in Great Britain, as the regulatory conditions are favorable there.
The obligatory postponements in this industry and the Corona-situation might alter the dates. But they are very well financed and the science is solid, I’m cautiously optimistic.
Greetings to Vienna from Innsbruck.
i think it would be great if they will start pig trials this year…..
Let’s keep our fingers crossed. Considering the news about them starting trials with pigs (as al.budny mentioned) it’s probably ambitious to jump into human trials in the same year but after 2020 I’m basically happy about any kind of progress.
Greetings back to beautiful Innsbruck, fellow Austrian! 🙂
By the way – is anyone registered for the Fortunis talk with Stemson? Admin, are you planning to participate?
Fortunis talk would be very interesting…maybe you can find the time? When is it exactly? I‘d try to find the time and watch it…I‘m not on LinkedIn though. Can you provide links?
The swine model is a requirement to be used as a proof-of-concept, especially to guarantee safety regarding oncogenesis and immune-reactions. This proof-of-concept can then be used for Great Britain‘s concept of the „specials regulation“, where a new therapy can be started when both the doctor and patient mutually agree to applicate the treatment/therapy. This could happen pretty quickly.
I’m going to try to attend the Stemson talk Vienna, thank you.
Ben, they mention on Linkedin one should email them if interested in joining the talk, which will be on 4th of February (16:00 GMT) mailto:info@fortuniscapital.co.uk
I’ll also see if I can make it!
@FollicleThought werent Pelage Pharmaceuticals’ drugs already licensed for other uses? Surely this would make them quicker to market
So it seems D1 they are looking at analogs which are likely to be more on target with less chance of side effects.
how long will these take to get to market? @FollicleThought
A while D1, a handful of years, but every advancement and therapy counts because not every attempt will work. There is also a smaller potential that the company finds a useful molecule that could come out as an OTC like their skincare product.
For Follicle Thought or anyone with insight,
A few questions,
1. Breezula’s long term efficacy is questionable, can the company fix that or is it going ruin the whole thing?
2. I was hyped for Breezula like many, but there’s also Kintor, another anti-androgen. Where is the hype for that and how hopeful are we that it will have good long term efficacy?
3. SM04554 should be out within at least a few years right? Are there any before and after photos anywhere on the internet? And even though it isn’t an anti-androgen like the 2 other mentioned drugs, what are the chances you think SM04554 can be used to maintain hair without having to use finasteride? I heard the best responders showed 10% increase, but I think most likely it will just be added to people’s regiments.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Nobody knows, including folliclethought (otherwise he would have published it)
Hi Big L, no worries bud. I miss a question here and there, was not intentionally ignoring you.
To your questions:
1. The company can’t ‘fix’ that unfortunately because the molecule is the molecule and you can’t change your formula at phase 3 without starting all over. I don’t necessarily it’s going to ruin the whole thing though. Let’s see how it goes.
2. I love Kintor that’s why I write articles about them. I can’t control what the crowd gets hype for but I can say for myself I am in love with the fact they keep saying they are trying to make phase 3 for pyrilutamide in 2021. New article about them today, by the way.
3. Samumed has yet to release a before and after from SM04554. I believe the drug should be out in Turkey (if it prevails) within 1.5 years for sure. I don’t think it will be a replacement for finasteride, but if you did not want to use finasteride then minox + SM04554 could be an alternative. If we get minox + Breezula + SM04554 then I think you may have an effective replacement for finasteride (or even slightly better) there.
Cheers
Hang in there everybody, I’m waiting on a few responses and hope to have some stuff to share early next week. Thanks
Damn, I guess I shouldn’t ask questions about hair loss topics on a hair loss forum. The only thing I asked that required new information to answer was the Breezula efficacy question. I was basically just asking for the admins opinion since he’s most likely more knowledgeable than me on the topics. Asking why Kintor isn’t hyped and if HE THINKS SM04554 can possibly be a long term alternative to finasteride doesn’t require him to post a full article. I was asking for his opinion. Just trying to get some dialogue going, sheesh.
Don’t worry about it Big L, sometimes other people come here to post negative things with sticks up their butts. Don’t take it personal. Admins really good about responding to questions.
1. They are planning on doing a 6 month phase 3 trial. I think they will go trough with this and act like the decline after 6 months did not happen.
2.Wait for phase 3 results (expected within the next 6 months)
3.Nobody knows. Phase 3 results in March will shed light on this.
Is anybody gonna make it to the Stemson presentation. Hey admin will you?
AA25, admin mentioned in this thread that he will try to participate. 🙂
Fortunis posted an update today on Linkedin regarding the topics covered in the webinar: “Co-founder Geoff Hamilton will take you through their incredible journey, from vision to proof of concept to clinical trials and full commercialisation.”
I have asked to attend and awaiting a response.
2. Phase 2 results*
Hello admin,
Hair loss (CX01/02 )is no longer featured on the products pipeline page on Carthronix.
Thanks for letting me know Baumer, I will check in and ask if hair is still in their sights.