First stage of hair multiplication

hardcastle

Member
Reaction score
0
Anyone read this yet? I saw this at Morphollica.com (http://www.morphollica.com/news_intervi ... cation.php)

I'm treating this with cautious optimism. You never know, but it sounds like a step in the right direction. :)

http://www.intercytex.com/icx/products/ ... ic/icxtrc/

ICX-TRC is an autologous hair regeneration therapy intended for the treatment of male pattern baldness and female diffuse alopecia.

A small biopsy or sample of hair follicles will be taken from the patient during a simple 30 minute operation carried out under local anaesthetic at a hair or skin clinic. The clinic would send the biopsy to Intercytex’ manufacturing facility where the hair-inductive dermal papilla cells would be “dissociatedâ€￾ from the rest of the follicle. These cells would be cultured and expanded in proprietary media over the next three weeks and subsequently returned to the clinic in a sterile suspension. Using a specialised delivery system, the hair-inductive dermal papilla cells would be microinjected intradermally into the patient’s scalp. The treatment will be performed under local anaesthetic and will comprise a single procedure of superficial injections, each injection delivering a minute volume of media containing dermal papilla cells capable of inducing new hair growth. Following the procedure, new hair growth should become evident after approximately three months.

ICX-TRC will be used by specialists in hair transplant centres, dermatologists and plastic surgeons to treat patients with hair thinning or hair loss.

Intercytex will initially develop ICX-TRC to treat male pattern baldness and expand it to treat female diffuse alopecia.

Phase I clinical trials (safety) have been completed in seven volunteers at a single UK transplant centre. No safety issues have arisen and five out of the seven patients have shown increased hair numbers. A high dose trial will commence in the UK during the first half of 2005, this will be followed by a multi-centre Phase II clinical trial on patients with male pattern baldness. The Phase II trial is planned for the first half of 2006 and will be performed in both the UK and US. A Phase III trial for both male pattern baldness and female diffuse alopecia is planned for 2007.
 

fallicule

Established Member
Reaction score
5
So if they plan the phase 3 trial for 2007 would that mean it could possibly be offered to the public in 2008 or 2009?
 

hardcastle

Member
Reaction score
0
fallicule said:
So if they plan the phase 3 trial for 2007 would that mean it could possibly be offered to the public in 2008 or 2009?

I don't know, although that would be nice. Interestingly, here's an interview with Dr. Ken Washenik at Bosley:

http://www.hairlosshelp.com/hair_clonin ... henik7.cfm

This interview is from 2002, in which he says that a commercial product is about five years away. Remember that Bosley and Intracytex are two different companies using two different approaches - Bosley's research focuses on generating new hair follicles, while Aderans is trying to revive existing ones (I could have this mixed up, so correct me if I'm wrong). Where I'm going with this is that, unless Bosley's changed its numbers, they're shooting for 2007-2008 as an introduction. Since Intracytex is a competitor, I would think that they would want to have something out around the same time.

Who knows. Personally, I'm not going to go for the 1.0 version. But everything I've read suggests that, even if there isn't a solid solution in five years, there will be plenty to be hopeful about in 2009 or thereabouts. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that it won't take long after that to go from hope to results.
 

hardcastle

Member
Reaction score
0
Thanks 20something. I was glad to see the webMD article - it's always nice to see references to future hair treatments in reputable medical sites.

And now I'm thinking, hmm...Bosley.

Is anyone worried that Bosley's going to have first grabs at HM? I've heard less-than-positive reviews of them.
 

Odelay

Established Member
Reaction score
7
I've been hoping for this for about 3 years now and they keep pushing back the dates it will be available, so very cautious optimism would be a better course of action. :D
 

Trent

Experienced Member
Reaction score
6
read the other posts about this, we've been talking about it for a while. intercytex is in stage II of clinical trials, and has been successful thus far. they are planning on using bosley medical centers as the institutions for performing surgeries (which is good because bosley is all over the US, so easy access). they plan on the procedure to be available to the public in four years. And since they are actually IN clinical trails and its a major company like intercytex that is backed by some pretty lofty sponsors, I'd say that's very very possible.
 

Odelay

Established Member
Reaction score
7
Trent said:
read the other posts about this, we've been talking about it for a while. intercytex is in stage II of clinical trials, and has been successful thus far. they are planning on using bosley medical centers as the institutions for performing surgeries (which is good because bosley is all over the US, so easy access). they plan on the procedure to be available to the public in four years. And since they are actually IN clinical trails and its a major company like intercytex that is backed by some pretty lofty sponsors, I'd say that's very very possible.

Ahh the always encouraging echo of "in four years," I'm sure eventually someone has to guess four years and be correct about but until it happens I'm not getting excited. I am well aware of this study, and a lot of the others going on, and they have all been stagnant for at least a year or more now and keep drawing out those four years longer and longer, so I'll stand by my very cautious optimism.
 

Fallout Boy

Experienced Member
Reaction score
3
Odelay said:
Trent said:
read the other posts about this, we've been talking about it for a while. intercytex is in stage II of clinical trials, and has been successful thus far. they are planning on using bosley medical centers as the institutions for performing surgeries (which is good because bosley is all over the US, so easy access). they plan on the procedure to be available to the public in four years. And since they are actually IN clinical trails and its a major company like intercytex that is backed by some pretty lofty sponsors, I'd say that's very very possible.

Ahh the always encouraging echo of "in four years," I'm sure eventually someone has to guess four years and be correct about but until it happens I'm not getting excited. I am well aware of this study, and a lot of the others going on, and they have all been stagnant for at least a year or more now and keep drawing out those four years longer and longer, so I'll stand by my very cautious optimism.

yes but none have ever completed Phase I yet... so obviously some progress is being made
 

Trent

Experienced Member
Reaction score
6
exactly.. that's where my optimism comes.. its one thing to say we'll get it done in four years, its another to have a phase III study scheduled and a phase II already in session.
 

Odelay

Established Member
Reaction score
7
Getting to phase 2 trials isn't the monumental event you guys are playing it up to be, while it is promising that it made it to phase 2 trials it has yet to pass them. Even if these trials go well, again that is just speculation at this point, it still must undergo the most important stage of these trials, which is stage 3, and from there it can be determined whether or not anyone should be getting really excited.

There is not enough information available at this time to be predicting due dates, because I have seen and read many of these predictions come and go and the only thing anyone has to show for it is better understanding of important it is not to get everyone's hopes up. When HM or whatever they want to call it is nearly ready for people like us to benefit from the procedure it will big news, until then I won't be hyping up research that still has a long way to go. :wink:
 

DarklyCharming

Established Member
Reaction score
1
Odelay, I have to call you on this. You've now posted 2 responses in this thread alone of you saying you aren't excited and aren't optimistic. Once is enough. If you don't want to be excited about it, stellar. However, it's better to remain silent and doubt then to hurt people's hopes and positive outlooks.

Yes, no one on here can say 100% what is going to happen. However, unless you are a doctor working for Intercytex, your opinion is only as valid as anyone else's as to the release date. It's all conjecture. Try to look at it positively. If you cannot, then post once if you have to that it will all end in failure. Then be done with it.
 

Trent

Experienced Member
Reaction score
6
my point wasn't WHAT stage, but the fact that its IN a stage. And like i said, its a big time company with big funding. This is a little different than one guy working in a lab saying he thinks he will have it figured out in four years, or some two bit company. I realize phase III is the most important and testing part of the process, but you can't deny that this is a pretty promising lead. I can see that you have probably been burned by predictions of HM in the past, but has anything ever seemed this promising in the past? I highly doubt it.
 

DarklyCharming

Established Member
Reaction score
1
Agreed Trent. If you look at the organizations funding Intercytex, it's an impressive list. They have a staggering amount of money coming in, and the major groups such as Bosley/Aderans, including investing firms, are putting all their trust in them. They have money on the line.
 

Petchsky

Senior Member
Reaction score
13
I noticed in todays newspaper (in UK) there was a small article on how hairloss will soon be a thing of the past cured by an injection. Its nothing really but i guess news is filtering out.
 

DarklyCharming

Established Member
Reaction score
1
I think that's very encouraging Petchsky. Those of us in the know will slowly see a trickle of news turn into headlines and massive media coverage when its officially released. Actually I bet it will be big news once it nears the end of Phase III trials. The end to hair loss is fairly major news.
 

Fallout Boy

Experienced Member
Reaction score
3
i would say its going to be major news becuase its a big step for science. Finally being able to cure something thats been a problem / non cureable for ages.
 

hardcastle

Member
Reaction score
0
I'll admit to having some doubts myself, but I think the recent corporate efforts are definitely encouraging. Odelay, which deadlines are you referring to? I know that Gho and Bazan were predicting some impressive advances, but my impression of them is that they were fairly small time.

I think a major difference between four years ago and today is coverage. K e n Washenik's given interviews to practically every hair site out there, and he appeared in a Wired article on HM in 2004. Bosley and Intercytex have been announcing that they're working on HM for a good while now, and they know how many unhappy people out there are counting on this. I would assume that these companies choose the deadlines they announce very carefully, because they know that every setback is going to raise doubts on whether they can actually pull this off. Doubt translates to bad press and decreased funding, so they've got a lot on the line.

I've said before that even if this does come out in four years, I'll probably wait a little. But I believe that HM is definitely coming, within a decade at the latest. There's too much money to be made here for companies not to pursue this technology.
 
Top