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Cures For Hair Loss 2023 - News Feed

A very good idea is to bookmark this article page in your browser or mobile browser for easy access on the latest hair loss cure and hair growth treatment news. This will allow you to check it easily for updates. If you are looking for a corresponding article from a past update, simply use the “Search” function on this site to locate the article. As always, thanks for reading and please share this information with all you feel would benefit from it!

Concert Pharma And Areata Drug Get Acquired

It was announced today that Concert Pharma and its lead candidate for alopecia areata, a deuterium-modified form of ruxolitinib, was acquired by the larger Sun Pharma company of India. After completing two positive phase 3 trials for their drug CTP-543 in alopecia areata, Concert Pharma planned to seek FDA approval in H1 2023, however, they were also on pace to run out of cash by mid 2023 as well. Thus, the acquisition by Sun Pharma is a terrific outcome for Concert, and a big win for the alopecia field in general. Real world examples of the profitability of hair growth therapies, and investment into them help pave the way for more such activity in the future. 

Androgenic And Areata Clinical Trials For 2023

A staple article for the 2023 year was recently published on Follicle Thought detailing all of the known clinical trial activity for the year ahead. There are over 10 companies trialing drugs/therapies for androgenetic alopecia and over 5 companies in trials for alopecia areata. This is the perfect article to share with researchers, doctors, and investors who want to know more about the hair growth treatment industry. We appreciate all you can do to spread the word of important clinical development to bring new treatments and support to people in many countries.

Nexmos Aptamer Product Targets Wnt Pathway

In the Spirit of Christmas, I wanted to share one new interesting therapy/compound in development with this audience. For most of us, the prospect of a new group of people (i.e. biotech company) working towards an effective hair growth treatment is enough to brighten the day. Today, I present Nexmos of South Korea, and their patented aptamer technologies. Nexmos is focused on developing nutraceutical, cosmeceutical, and therapeutic-based aptamers. Aptamers are “single-stranded oligonucleotides that specifically bind to targets in a three-dimensional structure and specifically bind to target molecules.” They are thought to be therapeutic alternatives to antibodies, with some potential advantages.

Among its therapeutic pipeline which includes aptamers targeted at Alzheimer’s disease and immune function, Nexmos also has a candidate for Wnt pathway normalization. The “WD aptamer” is claimed to block the interaction of CXXC5 with the Dishevelled protein, resulting in increased hair growth. This mechanism is essentially identical, and likely derived, from the 2017 study involving the PTD-DBM peptide by Chan et al. It will be interesting to see if that famed study will actually contribute to the actualization of a useful hair loss treatment, whether from the original authors or others who are carrying on the work.

Community Funds Topical Hormone Therapy Study

This past week, Follicle Thought shared the latest press release of HairDAO, a decentralized corporation which is seeking to solve hair loss by creating new treatments through crowdsourcing. The press release was centered on HairDAO’s newly funded study with Dr. Ralf Paus which will examine the use of topical thyroid hormones, T4 and T3, for use in androgenetic alopecia. If successful, one of these drugs may have an advantageous pathway to market due to their status of being FDA approved and widely used. HairDAO has recruited several prominent industry figures to help them with various tasks including research, advising, networking, and more. Drs. Carlos Wesley and Alan Bauman, and even Follicle Thought, have joined the HairDAO working community.

Dermaliq Begins Clinical Trial

Sneaking in just before the year’s end, Dermaliq announced today that they have enrolled their first patient in a phase 1b/2a clinical trial of a topical prostaglandin analogue in male androgenic alopecia. Dermaliq has created a proprietary formulation involving a prostaglandin F2a analogue and a specialized delivery vehicle which the company calls “hyliQ.” Dermaliq’s prostaglandin drug of choice may be latanoprost, or even bimatoprost, as it has not been publicly specified yet. The trial will aim to enroll 120 male participants who will receive either a high dose or lose dose prostaglandin F2a analogue, or placebo. Dermaliq estimates that the trial, which is designed to evaluate both safety and efficacy, will complete in Q4 2023.

New Phase 1B Trial For Alopecia Areata Enrolls Patients

Arcutis Biotherapeutics is dermatology-focused biotech company based in California. The company currently owns a diverse pipeline of candidate therapies, including ARQ-255, a topical JAK1 inhibitor for the treatment of alopecia areata. This treatment has been specifically developed to enhance the topical penetration of its active ingredient. On December 5, 2022, Arcutis announced the first patient has been dosed in a phase 1b trial of ARQ-255 in adults with patchy alopecia areata. The study will evaluate the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of ARQ-255.

Female Trial Achieves Success For Kintor Pharma

This month, Kintor Pharmaceutical announced that its phase 2 clinical trial for AGA in females met its primary endpoint. According to Kintor’s release, the trial comprised 160 Chinese female patients and involved doses of 0.25% and 0.5% KX-826, once and twice daily for each concentration. Kintor did not reveal the outcomes for each treatment group in their release, except for the 0.5% QD (once daily) treatment group which showed an increase in 11.39 non-vellus hairs per cm² in the target area compared to placebo. The company also stated that 0.5% KX-826 once daily will be the recommended dose for their upcoming phase 3 trial in China. What’s interesting about this outcome is we can gather that the 0.5% KX-826 BID (twice daily) group either did not show significant improvement over the once daily 0.5% group, or was even possibly outperformed. All in all, a positive outcome for Kintor.

Yuva Biosciences Completes Successful Pre-Seed Round

Yuva Biosciences is a biotech company developing cosmeceuticals and therapeutics aimed at restoring mitochondrial function in the body. Preclinical research done by Dr. Keshav Singh, co-founder of Yuva, showed that improving mitochondrial function restored hair growth and reversed gray hair in an animal model. The company’s next step is to prove that this mechanism works in humans as well. Yuva Biosciences CEO Greg Schmergel recently told Follicle Thought that his company has successfully completed a pre-seed funding round of $2.6M, and is now starting to raise a seed round with a goal of $3M. Yuva is currently developing proprietary compounds to stimulate hair growth and reverse skin wrinkles. Schmergel also told Follicle Thought that he hopes to share a more detailed update about the company’s programs in hair and skin sometime early next year.

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