Doc

Do you think we will ever see a day when someone with complete male pattern baldness (I.e. Horse shoe shaped) will be able to get a full head of hair? It seems like hair cloning has fallen off the radar. Is anyone/company still pursuing this? Do doctors and researchers still believe that we will be able to make it work? Will we see a solution in the near future? If so how long? There must be industry discussions and gossip about where we are with it. It seems like we have been waiting for ages

There are private companies that are still working on hair cloning. It has not fallen off the radar, but the progress has been slow. I can’t put a timeline on when it’ll be a reality available to the public, but I hope it will be available within my lifetime.

hello dr
i think Aderans is very close to complete phase 2 and begin with the last phase which is phase 3

this is the link: Aderans Research Reaches Major Milestone in Phase 2 Clinical Study Enrollment

From the release — “Aderans Research reached a major milestone this month with the completion of enrollment in one of its key Phase 2 clinical protocols.”

I don’t know that they’re all that close to completing phase 2, based on the info in this press release. It says they’ve completed enrolling participants for phase 2, which sounds like it could still be pretty early in the phase.

Snippet from the press release:

RepliCel Life Sciences Inc. is pleased to report that further analysis of results from its successful first-in-man clinical trial revealed substantial hair growth including seven participants with growth in excess of 10%, including 17.2%, 19.2% and 19.6%. Furthermore, there were no negative health effects.

“The RepliCel TS001-2009 trial was a first-in-man trial with a primary endpoint of safety and this was confirmed emphatically,” stated Dr. Rolf Hoffmann, Chief Medical Officer at RepliCel. “Even though the size of the trial was only powered for safety measures, secondary endpoints were included in interim analysis to give us an early look at efficacy to allow us to better drive the design of the next steps of the clinical development of the RepliCel(TM) procedure,” Dr. Hoffmann concluded.

Read the rest — Further Analysis Reveals Double Digit Hair Growth in RepliCel’s First-in-man Clinical Trial

These are updated results that were announced, but the release goes on to say that the trials will be continuing into August 2013, with results to be announced by the end that year.

Snippet from the press release:

RepliCel Life Sciences Inc. is pleased to report that the six-month post injection follow-up period of its TS001-2009 clinical trial is nearing completion.

To date, 17 of 19 subjects have had their six-month follow-up visit, during which time subjects had their overall health evaluated. This included subjective and objective assessment of verum and placebo injected sites and digital images were taken of the scalp and injection areas.

Read the full text — RepliCel Provides Quarterly Update on First-In-Man Clinical Trials

Since Acell has failed and seemed a year ago to be “A Cure for Baldness in Five Years” its seems to me that the only 2 research institutes that are really getting substancial funding are Aderans Research and Replicel. Aderans uses a small piece of tissue that is removed from the neckline…”Cells are cultivated in controlled conditions where they are encouraged to multiply by the addition of proprietary growth media. When enough new cells are formed, they are returned to the scalp, where they are injected and elicit new hair growth and thickness, ultimately producing more hair than the client had before.” Replicel has a way to isolate dermal sheath cup cells and cultivate them. They are hopeful that injecting them into the scalp will cause regrowth on the scalp.

Since both Aderans Research and Replicel are in phase 2 of their clinical trials one would think that unless the subjects of the trial were locked in a room for 6 months someone would obviously have come out and said that these injections are working. If so…investors and inside traders wouldn’t flinch to buy Replicel stock (Aderans Research is a private company.) But Replicels stock…regardless of its clinical studies that have been going on for all this time…has a low volume of trade and is at 2.35 a share. With all of this put together…it seems blatantly obvious that besides the procedure being safe…both Replicel and Aderans Research Institute’s attempts at regenerating hair follicles is failing. What is your take on this?

I guess that is one way to look at it. I am unaware of any leaked information, and I’m not even familiar with the ins and outs of these particular trials. I’d have to assume there are non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements which prevent participants from discussing their results (if any). If they are successful, the results will be announced when they’re ready. Rushing things isn’t going to help.

As for looking to insider trading as a sure-fire way to know if a product is coming to market… good luck with that.

Snippet from the article/interview:

For over a decade, leading hair biology scientists. Dr. Rolf Hoffmann and Dr. Kevin McElwee, have been studying the potential of dermal sheath cup cells to spark hair regeneration and the rejuvenation of miniaturized hair follicles. Hoffmann, RepliCel’s Chief Medical Officer, discusses his research, the process of developing this treatment, and the critical steps the company is taking along the way to ensure that it is successful.

Read the rest — Equities.com Interviews Dr. Rolf Hoffmann, Chief Medical Officer, RepliCel Life Sciences Inc.

Interesting reading! What little I know of RepliCel has been written before here, but this interview explains about their study of the dermal sheath cup cells and how this differs from others doing similar research.