Good News For Baldness: Hair Cloning News In 2020 – When Is It Available? – Part 2

What’s The State Of The Field In 2020?

Over the past 15 years, many private companies and universities have had their hair multiplication research program. Berlin Technical University, Durham University, Intecytex, Hairclone, Riken Centre for Developmental Biology, and RepliCel Life Sciences are included in the list. 

Let’s Take A Quick Look At Them

By announcing they had used stem cells to create new hair follicles in mice were researchers at Berlin Technical University making headlines in 2010. The technical obstacles proved insurmountable despite the researchers’ ambition to replicate this feat in humans. 

The private sector is now leading the change to bring the first viable hair multiplication technologies to market as similar research programs in other universities also died out. 

Winding down operations some years back was one of the early promising companies called Intercytex. Now heading a new company called Hairclone was the company’s former CEO. Finally, members of the general public can thereby invest in the company just in exchange for equity and the membership perks, in 2018 as Hairclone launched the crowdfunding campaign. 

Where men and women can store follicles for future use when the hair multiplication technology has matured, just last year, Hairclone launched the world’s first-ever hair follicle bank. Meaning the younger versions of your hair will give the best results in the future, the rationale of the hair bank is that the quality of hair declines with age. 

When they expect their first patient to be able to use their stored hair cells as hair clones have offered no date for it. 

Boasting one of the most active research programs in recent years is RepliCel Life Sciences. In the hair loss community, they have arguably drawn the most attention. 

The New Tie-Up 

To promote their hair multiplication method called RCH-01, which they plan to launch in Japan first, RepliCel has teamed up with Japanese company Shiseido. 

Containing so-called dermal sheath cup cells, the RCH-01 technology uses a part of the follicle. Cultivated in massive numbers and then injected back to the balding areas, these cells are removed from the back of the patients’ heads. 

Here as they come to say the least as in March 2020, the Shiseido then published the results of the phase 2 research that was carried out in Japan. Probably less than what is seen with minoxidil, the men who undertook the treatment had meager hair regrowth. 

Still far removed from the moment RCH-01 becomes publicly available, it looks like. If the project never makes it to market, at this point we wouldn’t be surprised. 

Riken is another Japanese research institute that has made a lot of headlines. Establishing a joint hair multiplication venture with electronics giant Kyocera was in 2016, was Riken. Announcing that they would be starting animal testing of their method, in 2018, was Riken and Kyocera. 

Since then, nothing new has been announced. Finally, the Riken/Kyocera has the original goal of bringing this technology thereby to market by 2020 which is not going to happen as it is certain at this point. 

Here we find the main player in the current hair multiplication research to be Stemson Therapeutics in the North American market. The company publicised the outline of its technology this past summer at the Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research founded just two years ago. 

Then it was Stemson hoping to start those clinical trials in humans in early 2021 where according to the indications it was given at that meeting. If this turns out to be overly optimistic, we will have to wait and see. 

Offered by the Hair Science Institute in its clinics in the Netherlands, UK, France, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia, is a fascinating technology already on the market is the so-called HASCI method. In that follicles are invasively removed from healthy donor areas and transplanted onto balding parts of the scalp, this method is similar to a standard hair transplant. Leading to the follicles regenerating themselves and growing out new hairs in the donor area, the remaining part of the hair follicle, and stem cells that aren’t removed. What comes to be the result? In the process leading to an increase in the total number of healthy follicles on the head, multiple transplants can be performed drawing hairs from the same donor area. 

What Then? 

Under the direction of Dr. Christophe Guillemet, a similar method to the HASCI transplantation is being developed by the CFS clinics in Barcelona and Madrid. Consequently, we find the aim to promote TissUse’s smart transplant technology in Japan, as it was just last year, that there was a partnership announced between German biotech TissUse and a Japanese company by the mane J. Hewitt. Supplying an unlimited number of new hair follicles is in principle TissUse’s transplant. 

Here the scenario now includes Rapunzel Bioscience and also Stemore as the other smaller players to keep an eye out for in the future.