Before writing this did you at least read the comment or look at the link to the patent thy was posted?
I did. But it took me 5 seconds to conclude that that comment is full of grandiose unrealistic dreams.
Swoop I'm pretty sure you said JAK inhibitors would never work for Androgenetic Alopecia. Hasn't been proven yet but signs are starting to point in the right direction at least. Not sure why you're so quick to shoot it down.
I still stand by that. They will indeed do next to nothing.
I agree regarding that site - it's totally biased, and suffers from a major conflict of interest since he pushes protocols with one hand while accepting advertising dollars for those services with the other.
That being said, I don't get your Follica hate. It's clear you have some sort of personal vendetta against it, and often misrepresent what they are doing (for example, you keep claiming that all they will offer is needling and minoxidil, when the patent clearly states over and over that it will be laser ablation).
I'm not hating Follica. What makes you think that?
Also I said they will be offering microneedling or dermabrasion in combination with one compound initially, and yes this will be minoxidil. We don't have confirmation of this but I'm highly sure that I'll be right. Everything points to it. Simple as that. Recent news of two days ago :
http://www.investegate.co.uk/puretech-health-plc--prtc-/rns/final-results/201704060700157354B/.
Follica is progressing the development of its proprietary, in-office skin disruption therapy that induces follicular neogenesis and enhances the new follicles with an active drug compound. Follica is initiating a pilot optimisation study mid-year, with a pivotal trial expected to begin in the second half of 2017.
Now what compound would that be? Hmmm...Yes, minoxidil baby.
Now in the long term future that's another story. Yes, Follica might research novel compounds that might work even better or in combination with minoxidil. But that process will be a long long long process, because we all know how long drug trials take. We are speaking about many years here. They are going for 510K approval only now for their medical device.
Your notion of them using a laser is just simply unrealistic. A patent often describes a wide range to protect their IP. You can't just derive factual information from a patent. But have you actually looked at their patent? Dermabrasion outperformed the laser when used solo as TCP.
As shown in Table 7 below, all four of the modes of integumental perturbation produced activated hair follicles. Dermabrasion (using the Aseptico Econo-Dermabrader from Tiemann and Company) resulted in the highest number of activated follicles, and among the laser treatment modalities, treatment with fractional laser resulted in the highest number of activated follicles.
Furthermore how do you even see this from a practical, let alone financial standpoint? Have you ever educated yourself on lasers? Here is a quick link:
http://www.skinacea.com/facials/lasers/types.html#.WOeW3kXyhaQ
There are only a couple of lasers approved by the FDA. These ain't exactly pocket handheld lasers and are expensive. Remember that Follica is going to produce the medical device. Do you seriously think Follica has the cash flow to start mass producing lasers like this:
?
And I don't hate on Follica. If it's microdermabrasion or microneedling in combination with minoxidil it's still better than minoxidil alone. And I see they want to reach a wide public with this treatment, because a lot of people don't seek out for treatments at the moment. This picture says all:
98% of elligible Androgenetic Alopecia patient do not receive treatment in the US.
So let them work with physicians, hair transplant doctors and clinics to reach a wider public and use that holy old minoxidil with their TCP technique to pump money into this market.
I won't hate them for doing that. The more money pumped in this market the better.
But I'll cheer if they get swooped completely out of this market by superior treatments. And that's where my hope lies. Actual companies that have the capability to launch something truly great in the near future, like Dr. Tsuji.
Follica simply isn't one of them, at least in the near future.