The Economics of it and what we can do

[waynakyo]

Many of you touched on the economics aspect of hair loss drugs in previous post. Some of what was said sounded brilliant, other things were less convincing. But even if we diverge in opinions I think most of you will agree that the way the "market" works/or doesn't have a huge impact on the advance of science and in this particular case the advance of hair loss therapies.
I am an economist and maybe that is why I am also interested in this aspect of hair loss, i.e. the market. To be brief there are two contradictory points of views here:
Hypothesis A:
A solution for hair loss might already exist but for economic reasons they don't want us to know about it.
Hypothesis B:
If there is a solution ( or even a powerful drug, a new minoxidil) for hair loss, we will know about it and it will be on the market.

I am very much not convinced about Hypothesis A at all. For many reasons that I will be happy to explain, but I prefer to be brief for now and say that this most likely to be completely FALSE.

As for Hypothesis B, which is on the opposite end, I do not believe it is true to the fullest extent. Why ? Because of market failure. Again to be brief, asymmetric informations and the huge costs of trial and the inability to fully enforce patents on some procedure might very well lead for some very good drugs/procedures not to reach the market. I will be happy to discuss this further.

What can we do Imagine that the shareholders of Merck, Intercytex, and so on are all balding people concerned about their hair more than money. Things would have been very different, no ?
I could write pages of why this could be the best thing we ever did for balding, but I feel it would never be done anyway. So I will keep it short and say that there are millions of balding man roaming the internet. Make a fund, ask for each one to pay as much as he can and he will receive a receipt. This money can be used in many ways. Grants, buying stakes in companies with active hair loss research, set a prize, on and on... Actually if well used it could even help solving the market failure that we are falling into.
I'd say, stage 1 collect money. (Some will pay 100, some will pay 50, many will not pay, but we can get to millions of dollars if the fund is protected). BTW I do not play any part of this except donating 100$, so hey, I am not looking for your money.
Before thje money is used anyone can go back and retrieve his money back. Why ? Because some people won't donate unless it works. But you tell them, if it doesn't work, i.e. not enough money or no viable project, you get back your full money.
Step 2, form a committee and decide where this money can be used.

If every hour is worth a dollar, we already wasted billions. Instead we could have had a fund to buy Follica even.
Going back to my point, imagine all the shareholders of Follica only care about hair loss and not money.

PS: there are 14000 members on this forum and 18000 on Hair loss help (many in common surely). Say 20000 in total, and 100 each.... = 2 000 000. And that's not all, ask for donations from rich companies, individuals,...
or we can sit here and wait.

 

[Night]

Theres already a 'b' and its in trail . Neosol? something like that. As for A, very unlikely . This is what we are looking forward to:

Interlex (sp) - .... it looks like they are going to fail by giving Bosley first dibs.
Follica - Looks like they are on time, excited to see some results, hopefully this year.
ACell - This could be great for transplants to give them unlimited donor hair

IS that all? I think it pretty much sums it up for now. As for it not coming out, because of A. No. If there is money to be made, it would be made.

 

[Hope4hair]

On the face of it, this idea seems rather intelligent. The plan to unite sufferers further than just a common attitute, but to unite male pattern baldness sufferers with a common goal would be brilliant. If a fund group was created, I believe we could raise many milions. First of - take hairlosstalk and hairloss help forums for example, these forums together would just about equate to 30,000 people. If each individual was willing to pay $100 that would give us 3,000,000. If through word of mouth we could gain 100,000 donations each (ideally) of a $100 dollars each, then we would be well on the way to 10,000,000. Perhaps we could have a target of 100,000,000. Just think of the potential.

However, this idea may be vey unfeasable. First of - who would be in charge and how would that be decided? Where would the money go, how much of it would go where, and how would that be decided? Another issue of creating a fund group might give rise bogus companies who are light years behind in comparison to companies like Intercytex and Follica who would claim to start HM etc to look for fund grants. It might be hard to tell what companies have seroius ideas and capabilities and what companies ars simply gold digging. It might create more pressure on male pattern baldness sufferers to cough up money then for the market to do it for us. Therefore the creation of a funding group may make it harder work for us.

Having said all this doesn't the world cancer charity/organisation do a similar thing? Each year they collect money donated, and every annum, they come together and many companies put forward their works/manifestos/concepts and the company choose a top five or so. If they can do it, why can't we?

I am no economist and these are simply my musings. Altogether this is a good idea and I think we as a community should explore this possibilty.