One of the major medical advancements just 2-3 years away happens to be curing baldness.
A company called Histogen has the cure. Its a cocktail of stem cells that are injected into the scalp. They recently completed Phase I trials, which was a two year study that ran from 2009-2011. It was a success. The trials involved one injection into an area of the scalp. The injection grew new hairs in the sample size area on each human test subject. These hairs matched the original color of the patient, were thick full hairs, and did not fall during the entire 2 years of the study. This also happens to cure gray hair, because as I said the new hairs are your natural color. There were zero side effects, unlike the other two medically approved treatments currently on the market which can have side effects. Phase I was amazing because that phase is only for testing if the treatment is safe, yet it also produced great results, so it wildly exceeded in Phase I.
So we know it works.
Histogen is currently in Phase II trials, which involves human testing of different applications of the cure. Phase II in this case is just about checking to make sure they have the absolute most effective method. They will try things like multiple injections in one area, perhaps some all at once or over time, etc. Phase II will run from December 2011-December 2012. The webpage for this clinical trial can be found here:
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01501617?term=androgenetic+alopecia&rank=4
The FDA has strict guidelines, so it will then enter Phase III sometime in 2013 to test several hundred to several thousand patients to get a final overall study sufficient for the FDA.
After that comes FDA approval sometime in 2014 or 2015. I'm really hoping Histogen becomes a publicly traded company because this should be a ginormous gold mine.
I started going thin in the early 2000s...finally shaved it completely slick in 2005. It will be 7 years next month. Depending upon the cost, I would definitely jump on this if/when this becomes reality. That said, it would be really strange to go back to having hair...there are many people in my life now that have never seen me with hair.
Having hair again would kick ###.
Here was the data on the Phase I study from back in April 2010 which got everyone excited.
http://www.thebaldtruth.com/articles/histogen-continued-hair-growth-interview/
John,
Thank you for your comment. You are correct, the numbers shown in the slides do show a 47.21% increase (179 to 263) which represents the increase in total hair count. In reviewing the actual numbers in the clinical data, the 73.61% increase is actually the increase in the terminal hairs in that subject. So, the numbers on the slide are correct however, they relate to two different parameters measured (Total Hair Count and Terminal Hair Count).
We also saw statistical significance in multiple efficacy endpoints including Total Hair Count, Terminal Hair Count, Thickness and Hair Thickness Density. Also measured were Velus hair count, rate of growth, etc. Thank you for your astute observation. I think you would agree that this is very exciting considering it was an injection at baseline only.
To review:
1. Phase I involved JUST ONE injection of the stem cell cocktail into the target area of the scalp.
2. After 1 year, there was a 47% increase in the number of hairs in the target area.
3. After 1 year, there was a 73% average increase in the number of terminal hairs, or thick hairs as opposed to thin hairs.
4. After one year, the control placebo study showed an average loss of 15% of the hairs.
Further results showed that after 2 years, the hairs persisted and did not fall out. We haven't reached the 3 year mark yet.
There is no daily maintenance with Histogen. Its one injection and you're done, the hair comes back.
Histogen averaged something like 83 new thick hairs per dime-sized area in Phase I. In other words, this is the cure, and its almost here.
wife prefers 1b, but I'll go 1a every so often. Funny thing is I look better without hair anyway.
(this would also suffice)
