Locking in Locks: Pharma Develops New Treatments to Prevent Hair Loss
As the GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound have proven, there’s a lot of money to be made in helping people look good and feel good.
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Hey fellas, maybe that upcoming, semi-secret trip to Turkey can be just tourism and leisure after all. You know, like you’ve been claiming all along.
If you have no idea what we’re talking about, consider yourself lucky.
On an utterly unrelated note: After decades of stalled progress, US pharma firms appear closer to cracking the code of preventing male (and female) pattern baldness, according to MarketWatch.
Economics of Aesthetics
As blockbuster GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound have proven, there’s a lot of money in helping people look and feel good. And while keeping hair doesn’t come with quite as many health benefits as losing weight, it’s still a large addressable market (one possibly made larger by the surge in GLP-1s, which can cause temporary hair loss).
Roughly a quarter of men suffer from male pattern baldness by age 21, two-thirds by age 35, and 85% by age 50, according to the American Hair Loss Association. Some 40% of women experience thinning hair by age 50, too. With such a large market and signs of advances in medical treatment, investors, like future patients, are increasingly putting more skin in the game:
- In October, startup Pelage Pharmaceuticals completed a $120 million Series B funding round as it moved into Phase 3 trials of a new treatment. Meanwhile, shares of Veradermics, which is working on a new form of minoxidil (an existing treatment), have climbed 20% after an IPO earlier this month, and Cosmo Pharmaceuticals has advanced roughly 8% this year after positive Phase 3 trial data for its treatment in December.
- The newcomers could rattle the lock held by current versions of FDA-approved hair-loss prevention drugs minoxidil and finasteride, which can come with difficult side effects and aren’t typically covered by insurance providers.
Race Against Time: We know what (some of) you are thinking: When, if ever, will these drugs hit the market? Pelage still has to begin Phase 3 trials, while Veradermics is expecting Phase 2/3 trial data later this year. But Cosmo has said it may actually submit its treatment for FDA approval before the year’s end. To our balding brethren out there: Hold the line. Avoid unnecessary stress. Massage your scalp. The enemy may be advancing, but, for the moment at least, there are signs of something that for too long has felt unfamiliar: hope.
