no offense jon-e, but i kinda hate newbies for the exact content of your post. yeah, i don't have 4342 posts, but i've been here lurking for awhile, have read basically every thread (or at least done my homework), and had an informed opinion even at my first post.
for you to say "i don't think anyone had..." is an innocent comment, but i didn't just post that for my health. i wouldn't know how to search for the specific post, but there are 23 pages or so, and it's towards the back. hopefully, the pair of guys gained their hair back. you would think they either did, or quit, because they don't have a million follow-up posts and such.
secondly, if you look on forums for HM and such, half of the supposedly reputable companies get investors/funding through their promises, and they're hardly doing anything at all. thirdly, read through those threads for awhile, and youll find that the common denominator is always "ten years away" it's been that way for awhile now, and there's no reason to think HM (or anything else is 10 or even 20 years away). granted, i think something better will be there.
finally, for the other comment, 2.5 years is nothing. avodart is only a different version of BPH medication -- it's not a hairloss advance. minoxidil came out 25 years ago, and not one new topical for hairloss has come out since. not one in this era of technology. finast came out in like 98, and we're almost at a ten year mark (nothing is in the works right now) where nothing else has happened. it's sad.
what's worse is, in five or ten years when something new comes out, it might be only slightly better than finasteride., more like dutasteride., and not like the next generation.
i don't say any of this to be nasty, just to be honest. sorry about that.