Samumed Results, Theracell Product: Weekly Thoughts 12/8/15

The Holiday season is in full swing, and there is a lot to be happy about in the world of hair regeneration.

For starters, Histogen and Replicel should both be available within about two years time. See previous post for expanded info. Also in this issue, I’m really excited about the new patents Angela Christiano has been granted this year. Hopefully, we see those ventures taking form very shortly. Thanks to all the readers who send me information to take a look at. Enjoy this edition of Weekly Thoughts, it’s quite exceptional.

Samumed for Pres

Perhaps Samumed was a bit inspired by all of the information that was shared at the recent WCHR, perhaps Samumed felt a nudge from the recent announcements from Histogen and Replicel. Whatever the reason, the usually tight-lipped company has finally released some meaningful information about the phase 2 trial for its product SM04554. This quote from their latest press release contains significant information about the capabilities of Samumed’s product.

“The findings are consistent with preclinical in vivo animal models, in which SM04554 has been shown to generate new hair follicles and increase hair count.”

The creation of new hair follicles is extremely exciting coming from a new topical formula. The press release also mentioned there were no serious adverse events in the trials and the adverse events were similar between those using SM04554 and those using placebo. Now we look forward to the announcement of a phase 3 trial, which Samumed is apparently committed to. The company is also engaging in an additional phase 2 trial to study the mechanism of SM04554’s action which will complete in March 2016. I wonder if they have to complete that trial to start the phase 3, or if they can begin the phase 3 right now.

Angela Christiano Patent December 2015

Our follicle friend Dr. Angela Christiano was granted a patent for the use of JAK inhibitors for hair growth this month. The patent is titled “Methods for treating hair loss disorders.” Below that patent you will also notice that Dr. Christiano received another patent this year for “Methods for compact aggregation of dermal cells.” The co-inventor of that patent is none other than Colin Jahoda. That’s really exciting news to me and perhaps this invention is tied to Rapunzel, which is the name of the company that Dr. Christiano has created to offer a cellular based hair therapy injection. We know that Dr. Christiano, and Dr. Jahoda especially, have been working on dermal papilla culturing and 3D culturing for a long time. If they have updated a patent for that cause there’s a strong reason to believe they have something that works well.

Theracell’s Mystery Product

In the last edition of Weekly Thoughts, I mentioned that a new intriguing webpage had popped up on Theracell’s site. The page depicted a product titled “Stem Hair + EGFM.” Originally the page contained an “add to cart” button and a price of 1200€. That has since been removed from the page. Because of the price and the image on the webpage, which was a small box with the Theracell logo on it, I assumed this was some kind of product you could purchase and receive and get injected by a local doctor. However, I now believe that this could be the cell based product for hair growth that is mentioned on Theracell’s website.

Here’s why: The Stem Hair webpage mentions that this new product contains “Autologous Stem Cells with Platelet Growth Factors.” Autologous means that the stem cells are coming from a person’s body and being put back into the same person’s body. Like Replicel, for example. That means it is not a product you can just order from New York and get delivered to you. The other reason, is that I received an email back from the scientific director at Theracell and she told me that the Stem Hair product is in preclinical stage which will complete within 12 months. That is the same response that she has given when previously asked about the cell-based hair treatment TC-CT-12131 which is described on Theracell’s website. This new webpage is probably a minor development, but it does raise a few questions for me.

Is 1200€ really going to be the price of this treatment?

What is the purpose of creating a product page for a treatment that is in preclinical stage? Is there perhaps an expedited process that Theracell can take after the preclinical work is completed?

Follicum makes most out of WCHR visit

In the latest news update on Follicum’s website, CEO Dr. Jan Alenfall mentioned that Follicum had a productive visit to the WCHR 2015. Here’s a quote that says the most “we made a number of new and important contacts that may have a significant impact on the future development of Follicum. In addition, we identified several interesting opportunities that we will be following-up.”

Overall, it sounds like potential funding partners, distributing partners, or the likes. That’s a very good thing because anything that can speed up the development of Follicum’s product, FOL-S-005, is a good thing. For a while now, I have been touting FOL-S-005, I think soon enough more evidence will be there to support it.