This popped up on my twitter timeline, I don’t know if there’s any more information about what was in their presentation, but it sounds interesting.
Since Follica’s treatment involves disrupting epidermis and growing new follicles, I was wondering whether it’s going to be of any help to people who still have hairs albeit weak.
Does it mean, that follica procedure will be rather applicable to totally bald patches, hence higher norwoods?
Sounds like wishful thinking. I think they’re in deep denial that they have nothing but a fancy wounding device to offer.
Yep 10+ years of research and all they have is a high-tech dermaroller. Sad!
The only thing to look forward to is Tsuji now. I have little hope in anything else.
@roger_that you seem pretty knowledgable. What’s your take on Tsuji’s work?
@baldings I think for several reasons, Tsuji’s work is probably the most promising avenue right now. He has pretty secure funding, he has a favorable regulatory climate in Japan, he’s working on creating de novo follicles, and he’s aware that a viable de novo follicle will require several different cell types.
Frankly, I see only Follica procedure in the foreseeable future having a bigger impact on addressing hair REGROWTH prospects. I think, it’s only a matter of time when they come out. So far, they are the only ones who proved they can regrow new hair.
I’ve never seen any convincing proof from Follica at all. What are you talking about? If you mean some very preliminary, conditional results from lab experiments by Dr. Cotsarelis, I will believe that’s “proof” only when Follica shows they have a product worth buying. As of now, all they have is a fancy, high-tech dermaroller.
Roger, I never said Follica would be a cure. But Follica is the only one who claim they can grow new hair. Not even one so called hair cloning enterprise ( Intercytex, Aderans, Replicel) has ever attempted to say they can grow new hair. Because most likely they did not and still can’t. And judging by the latest Replicel data, it is obvious they don’t regrow, rather rejuvenate outer rim, if that.
I’m not advocating for and not promoting Follica. I’m just thinking, if it is true what they said last year that procedure creates 100 hairs/cm2 of which 25% terminal, that on its own is achievement comparing to 25 years + hair cloning industry efforts in vain.
@Otter - Don’t know where you’re getting any of this from. People have such big misunderstandings about Follica. It’s the company that has its own perpetual fan base. People won’t let it die.
First, HISTOGEN actually has a real product, as opposed to Follica, which designed a swanky piece of equipment but has NO DRUG OR COMPOUND associated with it. They’ve been in a 12+ year, fruitless search to come up with some kind of drug or chemical that they can use in tandem with the wounding idea.
Didn’t you see Histogen’s cross-section photos? Those are new follicles, according to Histogen.
Or this photo from Histogen-
Cotsarelis’ research is based on reported new hair growth from wounding in MICE, not in humans.
They did a human trial in Germany, shrouded in secrecy quite a few years ago, and never released much information from that. In fact, they were already operating as a company years before they conducted those German trials, and it seems they conducted them only because they were under incredible pressure from investors to produce some kind of real “results” they could report.
Now, it’s years later, and we see nothing positive or tangible out of that secretive German trial. If the results were positive, THEY WOULD HAVE RELEASED FULL DATA AND PHOTOS BY NOW. In the wake of that German trial, they only made some very vague statements, provided some rough numbers that were quite disappointing, and shrouded most of what happened in secrecy. It’s still shrouded in secrecy today, BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOTHING.
Has even one picture been released from Follica’s trial in Germany?
The reason for all the secrecy is that if they actually disclosed their real results, the results would be so embarrassing that they’d have to admit defeat and close up shop.
Dr. Terksykh and Dr. Tsuji/Riken are also talking about methods to grow NEW FOLLICLES. They actually have more proof than Follica. Dr. Terskykh has actually released a picture of BRAND NEW HUMAN FOLLICLES he grew. Sure, he grew them on a mouse because he wasn’t cleared to experiment on humans, but they were human follicles grown from human cells. BRAND NEW human follicles. Isn’t that more proof than Follica has ever shown? Haven’t you seen Dr. Terskykh’s report?
The difference between them and Follica is they actually have solid methodologies, while Follica just licensed a THEORY from Dr. Cotsarelis and have never been able to turn that theory into a successful human treatment.
If they did, they’d have told us about it long ago and it would most likely be on the market by now.
I’ll make it really simple for you–
Histogen - brand new human follicles grown in human skin (at least according to the photo they released)
Terskykh - brand new human follicles grown on the back of a mouse
Japanese researchers (Tsuji, etc.) - brand new human follicles grown on the back of a mouse
Cotsarelis using wounding - brand new MOUSE follicles grown on the back of a mouse
Any questions?