Guys, when I wrote the initial post, my aim was NOT to write off Histogen. I was simply highlighting the points that were NOT known up until the recent announcement.
I think it's important to clear up what these results showed:
1) Histogen was ABLE to INCREASE
Terminal hair count by up to 40%! That is VERY GOOD by all of today's standards.
2) The
vellus hair count dropped significantly after 24 weeks, because obviously they had turned terminal.
3) The
total hair count however, did NOT change all that much in the temporal area (temples). Total hair count in other areas of treatment were NOT provided and hence anything we say about it will be speculation.
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What these 3 points highlight is that Histogen RESCUES DYING FOLLICLES by turning vellus hairs into terminal. It puts these hairs into a long-term ANAGEN phase...hence, its overall mechanism of action is very similar to Minoxidil!
However, Histogen has a much longer biological half-life as patients remained above baseline for 48 weeks after 2 applications...whereas, the effects of Minoxidil last 12 hours, thereby requiring TWICE DAILY application!
So in comparison to Minoxidil, it provided far greater potency in terms of increasing the terminal hair count.
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4) Follicular neogenesis (brand new follicles) did NOT occur! Or if it did, it was not statistically significant (i.e. 2.5%)...Hence, it is fair to say it will thicken up recently thinning areas BUT will NOT do much on slick bald areas.
This was clearly evident in the Ziering photos that was published in October 2012...It had simply thickened up the thinning areas in the
male patients
5) The potential for toxicity is there...
BUT
The BUT makes all the difference.... Histogen still does NOT know the safe dose range! So far, they have injected up to 40 injections per session without any signs of toxicity (Zieiring trial). 40 shots would approximately cover a 2.5 cm2 area!
Their Phase IIb trial which is the "Dose-range finding" trial will clarify this critical question! If we can get 100 injections per session without the risk of toxicity then we will be able to maintain our hairline for a very long time to come!
CB-03-01 will become available at around the same time to take care of the crown...
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Finally, I'd like to say that losing your hair is very traumatic for most. We are all emotional and we all would like this to end! So we are hoping for a silver bullet that will fix everything! Unfortunately, as we all have figured out, there is no such thing...In the future, we will most probably need a combination of treatments to combat AGA!
What's important is these tools are becoming available...But non of them are perfect and they all will have pros and cons...
Our aim should be to study these therapies thoroughly and get a full picture of what to expect from these treatments rather than what we would like it to do...
My aim was to help those with no medical background to fully understand what was being presented by Histogen without bias! No one likes to be the carrier of bad news and many are upset with me for highlighting the possible limitations of Histogen! BUT like I promised, I will NOT be putting any of you guys at risk of a possible harm by being overly optimistic and blinded by false hope! I will never forgive myself if I missed a critical piece of information and put some of you guys in the harms way!
Hope that makes ppl a bit more happy!
Regards,
- Semi-optimistic Des
Originally Posted by Scientalk56
Desmond, how about you be the president of baldies
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