usatoday24
The fight against alopecia is A thriving market. The first laboratory to achieve the “miracle treatment” that manages to avoid or reverse androgenic alopecia (conventional hair loss associated with age) could take a lucrative prize comparable with the success of formulas such as Ozempic.
One of the best positioned laboratories in this race seems to be Pelage Pharmaceuticals.
Preliminary results. A few days ago, the Pelage Pharmaceuticals laboratory announced “positive” preliminary results in the second phase of its clinical trials of the compound PP405. According to its announcement, the formula showed a quick and statistically significant response in these trials.
PP405. The compound developed by this company, pp405, is designed for topical application and with the aim of reactivating latent follicular stem cells (HFSC), thus allowing the restoration of hair growth. According to Explain the laboratorythese cells usually alternate latency and activity cycles when they work conventionally.
However, with age or in response to certain external or internal stimuli, these cells can be “blocked” in the sleeping phase of this oscillation. As highlighted, this state of latency does not imply its disappearance or loss of viability. Test treatment seeks to “restore the regenerative capacity” of these follicles, which entails the recovery of capillary growth.
78 participants. Preliminary results published by the company They belong to phase 2a of clinical trials of the compound. It is a randomized and controlled study in which 78 participants, men and women with androgenic alopecia have taken part.
The participants were divided between the experimental group and control group or placebo: the participants of the experimental group applied the compound in their scalp for four weeks; while the control group received a placebo. After four weeks of application, a 12 weeks were monitored to check the effects on the participants.
Results. The results now presented do not correspond to those obtained after the essay but to their eighth week (after four weeks of treatment and four subsequent monitoring). The responsible team observed that among men with more advanced baldness, 31% Of these they showed a 20% increase in capillary density. They stood out for this reason the speed of the response to treatment, at least in principle faster than that observed in contemporary treatments.
A crucial difference. However, the key to this treatment was in its effect on inactive follicles. The experiment showed regenerative potential both in the areas of weak growth and in the areas where the hair was no longer growing. The treatments we have in the present are useful when reinforcing growth in weakened but active follicles, not those that have already fallen in a state of latency.
“These early clinical results reinforce the potential of our approach to go beyond the slowdown of the hair loss process and directly attack the hair follicle tegeneration,” pointed in a press release Christina Weng, medical director of Pelage Pharmaceuticals.
A long way to go. The results are preliminary and correspond to a study conducted in a limited sample, so we will have to wait for the company to give new data on the drug evaluation process. According to the laboratorythe last stage of this process, phase 3 of clinical trials, could begin in 2026.
The support of a giant. The origin of the project is in the work carried out in the last decade by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles and other institutions. According to the company, the development achieved the support of investors led by Google Ventures.
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Image | Donald Teel
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