FDA Approval Costs Too Much for the Poor Snake Oil Salesmen

Hi Dr,
first of all thank you for doing this blog. I just wanted to ask a couple of questions and would really appreciate any answers. Firstly I know that you usually recommend FDA approved products in your blogs i.e. propecia and minoxidil and dont recommend any product that is not backed by the FDA. I actually emailed 2 companies (procerin and revivogen) who both make hair loss products and claim that they are really effective in treating hair loss and asked them that if their product is so effective why hasn’t it been approved by the FDA like propecia and minoxidil. They both gave me similar answers which consisted of 2 reasons:

a) getting FDA approval costs millions of dollars i.e. it is very expensive and that is something we dont have, and
b) our products are natural i.e they are not medicines and therefore they cannot be approved like propecia and minoxidil.

Can you please tell me if these answers make any sense?

Secondly I was looking at the revivogen scalp solution as a possible treatment to my hair loss (i’ve tried minoxidil and am allergic to it and am abit worried about the side effects of propecia) and came across a video (on YouTube) which contains an interview of the Dr that developed it, he gives a scientifc explanation of how the product combats the effects of DHT and allows the hair to grow.

I would really really appreciate it if you can watch this video or atleast a part of it and give us your opinion on this Dr’s scientific theory regarding revivogen. Many Thanks

You said it all in the first paragraph above — the makers of those products “both make hair loss products and claim that they are really effective in treating hair loss“. To be sure that this is the case, it MUST be scientifically studied with a good peer reviewed (that means unbiased) process. I agree that there are a number of ways to get there and these are all not necessarily FDA routes, but some analysis must be in hand to really substantiate the claims. If I told you that I have a pill that will make you live to at least 100 years old, would you believe me without proof? Of course when you are 100 years old, I could say “I told you so” — and if 1000 people took that pill, possibly one man will be around to make that claim at 100.

It does bother me that we have such proof with the drug Propecia (finasteride 1mg) and we know the possible side effects (which if they occur you can stop the medication and make the side effect go away) and yet people still seek out the unproven products with slick marketing. We really do not know the side effects of these other products, because it is not in the interest of the various companies to promote side effects, and as there is no FDA involvement they have no legal reason to list all possible side effects. If you are a man with male pattern baldness (MPB) and don’t take Propecia (finasteride 1mg), what you lose while you fool around with these other products is your valuable hair, which will be lost forever.