FDA-approved drug restores hair in patients with Alopecia Areata

Stem cell; cell based hair therapy
1

Not sure if this was posted already and I realize this might not be applicable to normal male pattern baldness, but could this mean they’re getting closer to some cure?

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-08-fda-approved-drug-hair-patients-alopecia.html

2

I am glad Dr. Christiano is involved, I trust her a lot (well a lot more than I trust Nigam) and this adds a lot to her credibility, i hope she will have a breakthrough for MPB soon.

3

I don’t know why people are not excited about this? In the article it says it was just 4 years ago when she discovered the clue and she is able to get FDA approved already in such a short time which means there is a good chance she can do the same for hereditary hair loss and get it approved by the FDA fast.

4

These drugs were already FDA approved to treat myelofibrosis.
Angelo Christiano and her team merely “repurposed” them:

If they develop a brand new drug to treat male pattern hairloss, it will have to go through safety trials etc. etc. This can take a very long time.
But who knows - maybe we’re lucky and they’ll find another drug they can “repurpose”…
Or (and I think this is more likely) they will find another kind of treatment that - for some reason or other - doesn’t have to go through FDA trials. I seem to remember that Angela Christiano said in an interview that she expected the regulatory path for her spheroid cell treatment (if it is successful) to be “smooth” because it “wasn’t quite a drug” and the cells were “minimally manipulated”.

5

Alopecia Areata wasn’t a problem. They didn’t discover a new thing. Please look at the pictures: http://www.pityana.com/Posts.aspx?PostID=336 Pityana discovered 5 years ago in Turkey. It is a topical stuff. It hasn’t any side effects.It is a mixture of plants.

6

For some people, alopecia areata reverses itself without treatment, even Dr. Greco was able to treat alopecia areat with platelet rich plasma, so I am not surprised at all. I just think that it is encouraging to know that Dr. Christiano (and her team) has success dealing with FDA, this will help a lot when she discovers the new clue for MPB.