Dear Doctor;

I understand there is a pharmaceutical company by the name of Dr. Reddy’s, based in India. I did some research, and though it is not one of the heavy-hitters like GSK, or Pfizer, they are publically traded. I examined the website and saw that they sell generic Dutasteride, named “Dutas”. My question is this: Has GSK released a generic form of Avodart? Is Dr. Reddy’s allowed to sell a generic form of Dutasteride? How would I know that this “Dutas” is actually Dutasteride? Avodaty soft-gels are printed with the characters
“GX CE2”. Is there an identifier on generic Dutasteride that would prove its authentication? Thanks so much!

Drug substitution is a buyer beware market. Generally, if a generic is sold in the United States and obtained from a reputable pharmacy, it must be from a good source, scrutinized by the FDA and meeting FDA requirements. If you buy the manufacturer’s brand and there is no ‘fake’ drug substituted (when it is done it is usually done in the supply chain through illegal means), then you are getting the real drug.

I understand that Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories is the 2nd largest pharmaceutical company in India, which would make it quite a well known company. I am not privy to know the dealings between Dr. Reddy’s and the original manufacturers of the drugs you listed. I know little more than you do when it comes to this, but fake drugs or drug piracy is a real problem in today’s market. Even some of the brand named drugs could be subject to substitution. For further reading about Dr. Reddy’s, here’s a list of facts I found on their site — Fact Book.

With all this being said, I do think that you must do the research on your own to truly make yourself comfortable.

I had a question about the post on alopecia areata where the subject grew a large amount of hair back using the drug DNCB (Dinitrochlorobenzene). Will that eventually be used in people who don’t have alopecia areata but suffer from baldness?

I am currently a 24 year old male suffering from baldness. I am on proscar and it has halted my hair loss to some degree. I have really curly jet black hair so that helps to cover up the baldness and people think I have thick hair, which is good by me. But still I want more. Do you think that proscar/propecia can maintain my hair for another 20 years until I am finally married and ready to let go of it? That is just a little about myself. Thanks for the website.

DNCB is like a really bad case of poison ivy. It impacts the immune system. Male pattern baldness (MPB) is a genetic problem, not an autoimmune problem. The treatment used for the man that I posted about the other day is quite dangerous. Forget it for the treatment of MPB.

As for the question about Propecia effectiveness over the years, please see Propecia and Hair Count.

Hello Dr Rassman, Im a 28 year old male that has been taking Proscar split into 1.25mg for about 1.5 years. During this period I have made two very interesting observations regarding my hair which i want to ask you about.

1. Does Finasteride effect the pigmentation of the hair? Over he past 1.5 years ive noticed that my hair has turned a bizarre color, it almost looks grey but it isn’t, it almost looks clear. (I have blonde/brown hair).

2. Does Finasteride decrease the diameter of the hair shaft? (Even on hairs that aren’t miniaturized). Ive noticed despite retaining the bulk of my hair, that the overall feel of my hair is thinner, it lacks body and luster, but there hair is still very much abundant as it was before and it still continues to grow long and strong. The hair itself is just finer, but this has occurred all over my head, it was never like this before! I can physically see the hair diameter is thinner. (But its definitely not suffering from miniaturization).

There is no report on finasteride being associated with a change of pigmentation of hair/color. Miniaturized hairs usually look lighter, as they have less pigment in them. If anything, finasteride increases the thickness of hair shaft and may make the hair look darker that way. There are some other causes for hair color change. Most of them are either genetic factors, or systemic factors like nutritional and hormonal disorders. Talk about this issue with your primary doctor.

It is hard for patients to judge the thickness of their hair after starting on Propecia. Although the medication is supposed to increase the thickness of individual hair shafts, the growth changes from finasteride probably occur over at least 3 months and even then it may not be easy for the patient to see the difference. By any means, Propecia should not decrease hair thickness. If you see such changes it might have to do with the progression of your miniaturization (and the hair loss) and the medication may not be as effective as you may have hoped.