If you go deep into Samumed's history and watch their presentations, they aren't some random company making some random drugs. They have stumbled upon a method that allows them to create a
platform, not just one hit wonder drugs like Clascoterone (one drug they rub everywhere for different effects). They are able to slightly modify their approach and tackle many degenerative diseases with their secret sauce.
If you dive deep into their history, you can see that Samumed was a spin off from
Wintherix & Epitherix (founded by some pretty notable researchers) (pre 2008) which was a
startup backed by Pfizer. The relationship eventually turned sour. The technology was at the centre of a
battle for rights between Pfizer and Wintherix where
Pfizer eventually settled in 2012 and gave over the IP. This was then spun into Samumed who didn't even start advertising a research pipeline until 2016, nearly
10 years after the beginning. From basically nothing to 2018, where they were listed as one of the most valuable companies you have never heard of, around 12 billion. They know something and have made it a point to only let the results of their clinical trials do all the talking (which take time).
A lot of people subscribe to the idea that DRUG -> INDUCE GROWTH or MORE DRUG (higher %) -> INDUCE MORE GROWTH. This works for something like minoxidil, but it's not what Samumed is trying to do. Knowing what I know about Samumed's history and how they are trying to selectively target pathways to
restore original function (inhibit or activate), not augment (chemically like finasteride), I subscribed to DRUG -> RESTORES FOLLICLE FUNCTION -> INDUCE GROWTH (like a normal head). An equivalent idea would be something like a pacemaker, which is basically used to help regulate abnormal heart rhythms back to normal. It fixes the problem and lets the heart operate like normal. So basically, fix the follicle, then let the body take over and do what it does best, grow hair.
When they released their phase 2 results, everyone was mad that a higher concentration produced less results with only moderate hair growth in the lower concentration group. Again, knowing what I think Samumed is trying to achieve (restore function), most people seemed to miss the most important detail.. that hair
continued to grow after the drug was stopped. This could indicate that the follicles were actually repairing (big news). I believe Samumed was trying to find the exact concentration which activates the wnt pathway just enough to
restore follicle function for Androgenetic alopecia suffers
, not directly grow hair. Once the follicle is working again, the hair will follow. But, this takes time (almost like a baby growing their hair), It will take a few cycles to mature back to thick terminal.
So my theory is that Samumed believes faulty wnt signalling (inhibited) within the follicle is a main driver of balding and by selectively activating it, they can reinstate the follicles original function. So finasteride and minoxidil will help get back a lot of gains faster, but at a certain point, SM would have healed your follicles to the point that it's equivalent to applying minoxidil or finasteride to someone who isn't balding.. It's doing nothing. Then the continuation of SM would be needed to keep the pathways responsible for regulating the follicle functioning properly.
If you stopped SM, you would begin balding again, but starting from healthy follicles. So it could be
years before you even started to notice you were balding again.
Also, aliens are real.
But who knows, we will find out soon enough ¯\_(ツ)_/¯