Stagnation in Baldness Research?
Why is it that, despite the astounding leaps in cosmetic surgery, and in stem-cell research, we still are nowhere near the ability to give me back a full head of hair? I have recently read that scientists can now change someones eye colour for cosmetic reasons, and re-grow teeth. It seems bizarre considering the amount of money that is put in, and yet almost no treatment exists, yet other fields are advancing brilliantly so.
Are you familiar with the romantic spy movie that came out a few years ago called “Duplicity“, starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen? The plot of the movie included an attempt to steal a secret formula, which is documented step by step. What is the secret formula, you might ask? What does this have to do with baldness research? The secret is — it’s a cure for balding.
I understand your frustration, but the movie does show the value business puts on a cure for baldness. There is a great deal of money to be made by any group that comes up with a successful treatment. Hair loss is not necessarily government backed research, as much of it is carried out or funded because the motivation is strictly for profit. There is a lot of research looking for the cure, and we must be patient and believe in the capitalistic model to see what I hope will be a truly effective treatment for balding sometime in our future.
Just don’t ask me when.
As Dr R suggests, minimal amount of money is put into baldness research via government-backed (NIH) grants to academicians at universities. The majority of money for baldness research (I would guess over 95%) comes internally from biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, which are based on for-profit. As someone who has been in this industry for over 20 years, and oversees the development of many drug programs (not dermatology), there is actually a relatively very small amount of money devoted to this direction for a number of reasons (not the focus of the sponsoring companies who tend to have different areas of expertise, too long from discovery to market, too low a technical probability of scientific and regulatory success, not well-defined endpoints for regulatory approval, etc).
Still makes no sense that other low-funded cosmetic areas have advances but not hair loss. I really have no doubt that it’ll be cured to some extent or completely, it’s just a matter of when.
They are making so many break-through’s all the time, I too have no doubt they will come up with a full or partial cure at some stage. Just recently I read an article on a cure they had found for grey hair, for example. It’s only a matter of time. In the meantime, those of us suffering from hair loss just have to get along as best we can!