The head of research of Stemson, the only legitimate dog in the race as of now, just said that they're still 3-4 years away AT LEAST from delivering something to the clinic (source). We are not sure if by "delivering to the clinic" he meant clinical trials or commercial release, but let's assume their research will succeed (and that's a huge IF) and that they will be able to commercially release something in 5 years optimistically.
So does it mean we will be able to clone our donor hairs in 5 years? NO!
There will be HUGE waiting lines and the scalling up of the operations will take years.
No chance for the regular bald dude of getting their hands on HC in the first year. To give you an example, the best/most demanded hair transplant surgeons of today have a waiting line of close to 2 years. TWO years. And we are talking about regular hair transplants here, nothing miraculous.
Imagine the demand size once HC gets "available", it will be huge, much larger than the supply. And on the supply side there will be lots of challenges related to logistics (remember cells will be multiplied in labs), learning curve, mistakes, training people etc.
So it's certain that the waiting line for HC once its launched will be longer than of the best hair transplant today. Let's assume it will take 3 years.
5 + 3 = 8 years. Boom. And this timeframe is assuming there won't be any setbacks with Stemson (and you know there will be). Sorry fellow baldies.
So does it mean we will be able to clone our donor hairs in 5 years? NO!
There will be HUGE waiting lines and the scalling up of the operations will take years.
No chance for the regular bald dude of getting their hands on HC in the first year. To give you an example, the best/most demanded hair transplant surgeons of today have a waiting line of close to 2 years. TWO years. And we are talking about regular hair transplants here, nothing miraculous.
Imagine the demand size once HC gets "available", it will be huge, much larger than the supply. And on the supply side there will be lots of challenges related to logistics (remember cells will be multiplied in labs), learning curve, mistakes, training people etc.
So it's certain that the waiting line for HC once its launched will be longer than of the best hair transplant today. Let's assume it will take 3 years.
5 + 3 = 8 years. Boom. And this timeframe is assuming there won't be any setbacks with Stemson (and you know there will be). Sorry fellow baldies.