OrganTech Hair Cloning Interview 2023
Follicle Thought is pleased to share an exclusive interview with the CEO of OrganTech as we draw closer to 2024.
OrganTech Inc. Resurgence
Prior to the year 2020, one researcher’s name was held synonymously with the topic of hair cloning by online hair-seeking communities – Dr. Takashi Tsuji, and most often, just “Tsuji.” The stem cell research being carried out by Dr. Tsuji at the Riken Institute was world class, and the appeal of faster regulatory pathways in Japan were mesmerizing to the follically challenged. Organ Technologies was identified as the company to translate Dr. Tsuji’s hair cloning research from the lab to the clinic. Industry partnerships with technology companies were announced, and various comments by Dr. Tsuji and his company’s leadership pointed to 2020 as the year when hair cloning would finally be trialed in humans in Japan. And then things went quiet. For various apparent reasons, and adding in the global health crisis of 2020, Dr. Tsuji’s venture with Organ Technologies closed it doors and the potential of a human hair cloning trial went with it. However, now in 2023, it appears that Dr. Tsuji’s absence in the global hair regeneration race may have only been temporary.
Just before the start of 2023, the organization now known as OrganTech secured an investment from the Japanese company Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, and in January 2023, its business was resurrected. An official press release published on OrganTech’s website in February detailed the company’s history and current business endeavors. At that time, hair regeneration was still mentioned as one of the company’s flagship technologies along with regenerative dental (tooth) implants. Typically speaking, companies aiming at lofty goals such as hair cloning are usually “a few years away” from trials, or “have plans to begin” something in the following year. As we are approaching a new year, I wanted to check in with OrganTech leadership to get as accurate a forecast as possible on what’s next for its hair regeneration medicine.
Takashi Kondo (organ-tech.jp)
Interview With CEO Takashi Kondo
FT: What attracted you to become a new CEO with OrganTech?
Takashi Kondo: Through a friend’s introduction, I met Dr. Tsuji and was immensely impressed by the technology he developed. I felt that it held tremendous potential to change the future of medicine. On the other hand, I realized they were at a loss when it came to fundraising and business development and that they needed someone to support them in these areas. Having worked at a general trading company, I’ve gained experience in everything from business operations to business development. In addition, at a strategy consulting firm, I honed my skills in formulating business strategies and abstracting business models, and at a buyout fund, I acquired knowledge in fundraising, financial management, and other finance-related areas. I believe that by leveraging these experiences, I can accelerate OrganTech’s business, make a significant impact on society,
and enrich people’s lives. That’s why I decided to join.
Through our organ regeneration technology at OrganTech, not only do we aim to improve the Quality of Life (QOL) of those suffering from hair loss through regenerative hair treatments, but we also intend to venture into regenerating other organs in the future, significantly expanding the possibilities of future medical treatments. Furthermore, in the fields of drug discovery and cosmetics, we hope our technology will be utilized to ensure smooth development in a world without animal testing.
FT: Can you bring us up to date on the important developments by OrganTech since the company has been renewed?
Takashi Kondo: Currently, we are engaged in three business operations: hair regeneration, next-generation implants, and three-dimensional artificial skin.
Regarding the hair regeneration business, we are preparing documents for clinical research, and we plan to transplant regenerated hair follicle primordia into humans as early as the second quarter of 2024. In addition, we are continuing research to further enhance the hair growth rate and plan to sequentially perform primordia transplants into humans using new technology.
Similarly, for next-generation implants, we are preparing for clinical research and plan to commence the implantation of these next-generation implants into humans from the second quarter of 2024. Presently, we have initiated discussions with overseas partners and are preparing to sequentially conduct clinical trials abroad.
The three-dimensional artificial skin has already been commercialized. We are advancing contract agreements with various companies and will be proceeding with the use of our intellectual property and technology transfer. This will enable the exploration of new ingredients for cosmetics and topical medicines without animal testing, contributing to the realization of an animal-friendly society.
FT: Is there anything else we should know about OrganTech’s current business and plans?
Takashi Kondo: We are planning to go public and raise funds in the stock market to further our research and development efforts. After analyzing, we believe that NASDAQ is the most suitable stock exchange for this purpose, and we have currently started preparations for the listing.
If there are institutional investors interested in our business, please get in touch.
Discussion
Special thanks to OrganTech CEO Takashi Kondo for taking the time to share these responses with our audience. This is the first mention I’ve heard of OrganTech eyeing an IPO on NASDAQ – very interesting news. An IPO could allow the company access to a multitude of necessary capital for its R&D efforts. Also, the subject which is most dear to the hearts of the audience, the timeline to trials, has been further estimated to potentially happen as soon as Q2 2024. Previously, a human hair regeneration trial by OrganTech was estimated to begin at some point in 2024 which is a standard and somewhat vague estimation. Finally, we received insight into Dr. Tsuji’s lab’s efforts into further refining and improving its hair cloning technology with a higher growth rate.
Enjoy this news and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.
Posted in Hair Cloning, Hair Growth Treatment, Hair Loss Cure, OrganTech, Takashi Tsuji
Thank you for reading. As always, please remember that projections/estimates can only be classified as they are. And big thanks to GGG for the tips.
We wish the best to OrganTech in its pursuits.
Interesting interview! Let’s hope Organtech sticks to their schedule. Keep your fingers crossed. Thanks for sharing the interview admin 🙂
https://www.pharmexec.com/view/chime-biologics-hope-medicine-strike-manufacturing-deal
Hopefully 2024-2025 is a big year or 2 in launching to market new treatments for androgenetic alopecia. And hopefully grey hair treatments follow, Eirion therapeutics front runners so far..
Good news Andy, thanks for sharing. Apparently this deal will help support the development of HMI-115 for AGA. I also saw this post on Reddit which I think you will enjoy. https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jcpt/2023/7238029/
Brilliant!
Sounds completely plausible unlike the numerous others we have heard before 😀
Thanks Bobby, I agree it does sound plausible, let’s see how it goes. 👏
I’m not sure how effective thar will be in humans as that just shows mice from what I read. Also maybe more effective at preventing grey hair rather than reversing. At the moment I’m still holding out hope for Eirion as they sound the most promise of having a proper solution, hopefully they have an update soon for starting clinical trials.
I missed the Fukuda conference and overslept 😩. @Andy I’m surprised they haven’t given us an update on anything since it’s been over a year now since they’ve provided us with any kind of update. I’ve not given up on them but I’m cautious. Plus did you hear about a Japanese company YJ Lab? They’re working on greying too, but no website as of yet. https://www.thebell.co.kr/free/content/ArticleView.asp?key=202309051458526280105742
Yoyo, yes seen the YJ lab sounds the real deal but hard to believe it or back their claims up with no website or nothing to track their progress. So I’ve all my eggs in the eirion basket, if things don’t go to plan for them I’ll be gutted as it seems the real deal for both hair loss hair greying and anti aging in general.
The reason I have faith is because their other candidates are currently going through FDA trials so who knows lol
Do we have any Japanese readers here? Please comment.
Hey FT, is there a PDF document that you have? Because I think I would know how to translate that to English. https://www.onlinedoctranslator.com/en/translate-japanese-to-english_ja_en
YoYo, thanks very much. I was looking to translate audio actually.
Yoyo, is this YJ Labs or Eirion that is having other products FDA approved? I know Eirion are having clinical trials for other products in their pipeline but haven’t seen anything for YJ Labs. Like @Andy said, no website etc., which makes it difficult to gauge potential success and get on board. I’ve only seen some kind of topical skincare they’ve produced. I’m optimistic about Eirion, but feel they may struggle with ET-02 because it’s based on PAI-1, cancer treatment drugs, being used for “cosmetic” reasons. I say “cosmetic” because that’s how people generally view gray hair, hence hair dye and the hair colouring market is thriving. Using these drugs just to change hair colour is likely very risky for obvious reasons (and AA as they mention on their website), and there will be so much they’ll have to work out and trial before it’s FDA approved. Or even approved to test on humans in clinical trials, I imagine. That’s probably why we’ve had no updates on it for a year or so. Does anybody know if they’ve even applied for their IND? From memory the literature to date on PAI-1 compounds elciting hair repigmentation hasn’t shown a high or consistent rate of observation of hair hair repigmentation with the control groups that have used them, i.e. out of those that used PAI-1 compounds for cancer treatments, only a small amount experienced hair repigmentation as a side effect. Almost like the case studies have been somewhat isolated. There’s also the complicating fact that some literature posits that in some cases hair repigmentation points towards melanoma. So I think transforming that into a workable solution for gray hair for a general pulopulation will be difficult. There’s also the issue of funding which I believe Rivertown Therapeutics ran into, which IMO looked promising at the time. I obviously I could be very wrong and this is just my 2 cents. Keen to discuss this stuff further but this may not be the most appropriate thread. FT feel free to direct this discussion elsewhere.
Yea I was referring to Eirion regarding other candidates in pipeline. To be honest I’m not too familiar with how ET-02 works but I have heard about the concern of cancer so I feel like with clinical trials and more data we can have a better understanding of potential side effects and what not. Regarding YJ Labs, I agree not having a website is disconcerting but I do like how they explained the causes of grey hair and how their product is composed of “raw materials that have been proven safe” that can eliminate the Oxygen around the grey hair returning your natural hair colour. The 2 reasons I’m more excited for YJ is 1) Clinical trials don’t take a century over in Japan, ensuring faster approval for release into the market (Eirion was supposed to initiate their trials in the 1st half of this year) 2) The statement “the product is developed using only raw materials that have been proven safe, so there are no side effects.” makes me feel more at ease, rather than ET-02 which can potentially be cancer causing. Sorry for the long response lol.
Alan, do you know if Rivertown had problems with financing or their problem was that the clinical trials did not go well? If it were the money, they still have time to return to clinical trials.
Alan, no problem, feel free to chat here. If you are easily able to retrieve data on PAI-1i showing repigmentation, please share. If it’s not easy, don’t worry about it.
One point I would make is Eirion emerged onto the scene in March 2021 announcing a $40M series A funding round. https://moonink6.wixsite.com/eirion/single-post/eirion-therapeutics-inc-closes-40-million-series-a-investment-and-licensing-deal-with-shanghai-ha So, I can’t imagine money is an issue, like it was with RiverTown. Yes, RiverTown had funding issues and never made it to trials. However, with all that time passed, I think everyone would be better off with newer and safer drugs/analogues which target the pathways of RiverTown’s drug. Taking CsA and FK-506 does not seem like a sustainable route for a lot of people.
Hey FT sorry to bother you but did you happen to find any updates on either Pelage or Fukuda?
YoYo, no worries. I don’t have any news on Fukuda except for the favorable snag I had of the original Healthcare Venture Award website in which it was written that their company expected to receive approval to begin a clinical trial by the end of 2024. It makes the most sense, and I am confident that it was Fukuda who wrote the summary of his company for the Healthcare Award website. I hope to clarify that Pelage told me they are putting a press release out soon, I do not know when the PR will publish, but I expect it any day now. It is surprising to take long, but you never know what’s going on behind the scenes. Pelage raised some money this year, so that is likely the bulk of the info, however, they will also highly likely mention a timeline to clinical trials.
Thanks so much FT, I really do appreciate all the hard work you’re putting in for us. I was always on the unsure side when it came to better treatments/cure but it does finally feel like some important pieces are in play and that the hair loss field is moving in a positive direction.
Oh okay, I heard https://sonix.ai/how-to-translate-japanese-audio-to-english-text#:~:text=Sonix%20has%20an%20advanced%20Japanese,from%20all%20over%20the%20world Is really good, however, I haven’t personally used it myself. Hope that helps.
Thank you!
https://www.patentguru.com/assignee/eirion-therapeutics-inc
In this patent from Eirion therapeutics it states that they carried out their own clinical trial for et02 for grey hair reversal on 25 human subjects with a topical oral and injectable version of Pai-1 inhibitor with no side effects as far as I can see over 6 months but would be good to get a follow up on all 25 subjects as it worked to reverse grey hair as they stated. Fingers crossed there wasn’t any and they can move forward through clinical trials.
Hiya Andy, my understanding when I read the patent is that they’re explaining/ exemplifying how they will prove their claims using studies with those three modalities (topical, oral, injectable)? When discussing the studies they use the present tense almost entirely throughout the descriptions. Also, they mention injenction as a modality in the patent but it’s not in their pipeline on their website. Would be odd if it worked in the studies but they weren’t devloping it. I read Eirion already tested ET-02 for AA over a 4 month period and it apparently outperformed minoxidil over a 12 month period. Be interesting to learn if they observed hair repigmentation as well and what those results were.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/veradermics-doses-first-patient-first-140000581.html
I looked up their website and I’m still confused as to what their method or active ingredient is? All I could find is non hormonal or am I missing something?
Thanks Andy. I had been waiting about 7 months to do an interview with Veradermics’ CEO about this program. I hope he will still do the interview, but I’m surprised to see the press release.
Would certainly be good to know more info about VDPHL. Any thoughts on what the non hormonal oral treatment could be? I’ve been searching for a patent to try and find out what it could be but no success.
What do you think about their accelerated timeline compared to Stemson Therapeutics?