What do you mean by leaflet? It is approved for hair loss at a .5mg daily dosage in Japan and Korea. I forget the company that manufactures it and did the phase 3 study, but they create it specifically for hair loss now. It is not an off label treatment there, but off label is still much cheaper.
And it will never get approved in the USA, because no company will do phase 3 trials in the USA, as it won't be profitable. There is no reason to get on a drug that has slightly more side effects if finasteride is effective for you, and it works for 90% of people. So finasteride will still get prescribed for a majority of patients. But there are still those who don't respond to finasteride, who may benefit on dutasteride. Also, dutasteride generics are already available for prostate issues. Therefore, no one is going to buy the brand-name dutasteride for hair loss when they can just buy the generic version used for prostate issues, off label for hair loss, at a waaaay cheaper price.
Also people should never use dutasteride as their first line of treatment. Finasteride 1mg does have way more studies for hair loss, and is proven effective for most people. If finasteride fails after 1 year you could consider dutasteride as a last resort to keep your hair. If you don't experience side effects on finasteride you're far less likely to experience them on dutasteride. Therefore, it is smart to take finasteride first (with the much lower half-life), so if you do experience side effects you can stop, and it will be out of your system faster. Obviously dutasteride has more risks with the long half-life and potency, but you have to weigh the pros and cons here. Everyone knows there is risks involved with these drugs, and each person has to determine the risk the want to take. I was on finasteride for 2.5 years without success. I now take .5mg dutasteride EOD because I feel that every day is too big of a risk for me. If it fails I won't up my dosage, but will have to accept the hair loss.
