Where’s the Rush of Hair Multiplication Companies Coming to Market?

Dear Dr,

Thank you so much for the great website. I have two questions. Firstly, is there any chance that Propecia can lead to infertility in men?

Secondly, if the ‘theory’ behind hair multiplication is sound is there a type of ‘gold rush’ to get this to the market place? I only ever hear about aderans and intercytex. Surely, there must be more companies looking for a cure. It seems that intercytex has had ‘relatively’ good results so far in its trial for hair multiplication. Do you believe we will ever see a complete cure for baldness? Not just stopping people going bald but allowing extensively bald people to regrow hair. For example bruce willis regaining a full head of hair.

I do think there will be a cure for baldness, just as I think there will be a cure for cancer and a cure for a rash of other diseases and ailments. When that will be is anyone’s guess, but science progresses all the time. It won’t be within the next few years, but we can all hope for the best. I have no way of knowing if it’ll help Bruce Willis regrow a full mane of hair, though. We could speculate all day, but it is just a pipe dream at this point. Hair loss isn’t a life threatening disease, so you’re not seeing yellow plastic bracelets and pink ribbon stickers everywhere with people showing their desire to help fight against balding.

Aderans is a huge Japanese company with significant funding, and Intercytex is also well funded, so the market has space, but it isn’t just something any company can rush into without a whole lot of money backing them up unless they want to just fizzle out. I’d guess that many companies will wait until the technology is proven safe and effective (if it ever is) and take it from there. I mean, just look at the rush of products that came out containing minoxidil once that was available as a generic. There is just not much that is worth my time to evaluate at this stage. When it gets to the level where the FDA has to review it for clinical testing, then there will be a track record of science that got it there and as this will always be public information, we can assess the technology at that time.