Follicum Phase 1/2A Hair Growth Results

Two days ago, I received an email from one of my readers which informed me that Follicum had just made an announcement about important developments that would be of interest to me. Upon further investigation, I found the Follicum website (only on the “Swedish” content) had put out a press release pertaining to the results of their candidate FOL-005 in its latest phase 1/2a trial.

The peptide, FOL-005, has shown a statistically significant increase in hair growth in its latest trial on humans. This was actually somewhat of a surprise to all those who were watching this development carefully. The CEO of Follicum, Jan Alenfall, had stated before the trial began that the company expected to observe the inhibition of hair growth in this trial. Pleasing to most of us, the peptide pulled a bit of a switcharoo, and produced the stimulation of hair growth instead. For those just joining the conversation on Follicum, the peptide FOL-005 has shown the ability to both inhibit and stimulate hair growth in its preclinical trials. The company is now furthering the development of FOL-005 through clinical trials to better understand and produce each of those effects in the desirable situations thereof.

What’s it Looking Like?

In this phase 1/2a trial, FOL-005 showed an 8% increase in hair growth in people who received the treatment. The treatment was administered by injection into the front thigh area of the trial subjects. Those who received a placebo injection in the trial showed a decrease in hair growth of 2%. There were no adverse events reported from those who received FOL-005. As far as I can tell from this press release, the subjects received injections twice per week.

So, 8%…..what does this mean? Is this good?

Here’s what is relevant to the stats and the design of this trial:

  • This study was completed over a 3 month time period. That is a small window of opportunity to observe an increase in hair growth due to the time involved in the hair growth cycle itself. How much hair growth could be observed over 6 or 9 months, then?
  • The biological area which was treated in this study was the thigh. I just took a moment to look at my own thigh. Yes, there is a lot of hair growth there (laughs), but not the same as a scalp, obviously. There is a chance the peptide could behave differently (potentially better) when used on the scalp.
  • There were 4 dosing ranges being tested in this trial. The second lowest dose showed the best response. It appears that this drug shows a dose-specific response similar to Samumed’s drug. What is more pertinent, those doses of FOL-005 that were used in this study and found to be non-optimal, affected the statistics, which came out to be an 8% increase in hair growth. What could the % be if the whole group was treated with the optimal dose?
  • The press release mentions the data from this trial indicates that changing the dosing frequency to three times a week or more, could further improve results.
  • This trial has provided Follicum with information on how to improve upon their formulation.

You knew that the optimism was coming, and it’s deserved. Things are still early here for FOL-005 with more to come.

Moving Forward

Jan Alenfall states at the end of the new publication that Follicum is now getting things together for FOL-005’s phase 2 trial, also the company will be focusing on creating an optimal formulation for their peptide (which may include nanoparticle delivery), and notably, the next trial will be administered on the scalp. Good news to hear, for now.

This is the link to the press release, now posted in English.

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43 Comments

  1. Champpy on April 13, 2017 at 6:16 am

    Don’t be so sure about this next phase of testing being any more positive. If they’re going to go for the scalp next then they’re going to have to deal with male pattern baldness fighting back the hair that might be trying to grow.
    You don’t have that issue in the thigh. Hair should grow freely there but the scalp is a different story for men suffering with MPB.

    Let’s see how it performs when something’s pushing against it the whole time.

    Wish them good luck and Godspeed



    • Follicle Thought on April 13, 2017 at 1:26 pm

      We’ll just have to wait and see 🙂
      Thanks for sharing.



  2. Topkek on April 13, 2017 at 10:38 am

    5 Years away?



  3. Dere on April 14, 2017 at 12:29 am

    Great write up of the article. Keep up the hard work!



    • Follicle Thought on April 14, 2017 at 11:27 am

      Good to hear from you Derek, thanks.



  4. Louis Samuels on April 16, 2017 at 5:00 pm

    Hello admin.

    When it will be available? Current treatments don’t work for me….it’s a shame…



  5. Louis Samuels on April 17, 2017 at 8:38 am

    Hello Joseph! When the treatment RAIN from follica will be available? I need it. I pay a lof money for that. Minoxidil and Finasteride don’t work…

    Thanks for all.



    • Follicle Thought on April 17, 2017 at 3:29 pm

      I update when it is possible Louis, I believe you are aware.



  6. Champpy on April 17, 2017 at 9:27 pm

    Hi admin. Eagerly awaiting your report on the cream you have been testing.
    Was hoping you could tell me/us of this cream is something you decided to try on your own or were you approached by the manufacturer?
    Thanks a lot



    • Keith on April 18, 2017 at 10:56 am

      There is nothing new that has come out.



    • Follicle Thought on April 18, 2017 at 8:40 pm

      Received it from a friend actually



      • Champpy on April 18, 2017 at 8:52 pm

        Thanks for replying!



      • Chris2 on April 18, 2017 at 10:33 pm

        A very hairy friend. Or a not so hairy friend.



      • Keith on April 19, 2017 at 6:41 am

        I missed something. What is the cream that you are testing out??



        • Follicle Thought on April 19, 2017 at 10:33 am

          Please see recent previous weekly thoughts



  7. Andy on April 20, 2017 at 4:45 pm

    What do you think about the hair regeneration treatment using Acell and prp injection instruduced by Dr. Prasad from N.Y?



    • cody on April 20, 2017 at 9:26 pm

      I tried it with Dr. Bauman and did not have luck, also tried similar procedures multiple times with Dr. Greco and no luck. Save your money.



      • Keith on April 21, 2017 at 7:04 am

        Btw admin great blog, people are already speculating the cream you are using is N2C and some claim it doesn’t work which is ridiculous because a lot of things don’t work for a lot of people. Nonetheless thought I’d throw that out there. Thanks again



    • Yo on April 21, 2017 at 10:33 pm

      Does not work. Did it, nothing happened



      • Champpy on April 22, 2017 at 2:00 am

        Hey yo, how long did you try to use it?



        • Follicle Thought on April 23, 2017 at 12:10 pm

          Believe he’s talking about prp.



  8. bikram on April 22, 2017 at 6:58 am

    hello admin
    what had happened to kelopesia no update was it a scam.



  9. Follicle Thought on April 24, 2017 at 10:52 am

    I am updating the Kelopesia article now.



  10. Yosi on April 24, 2017 at 8:23 pm

    I really get tired of hair loss, and waiting for reboost lotion It been 5 year I am waiting for something that can bring me to joy please admin let us know about some real cure



  11. Matt on April 25, 2017 at 1:20 am

    I really need the lotion. Burned my scalp at the beach on vacation because my hair has thinned so much… Didn’t even get that much sun! Well at least I had a good laugh about it.



    • Follicle Thought on April 25, 2017 at 11:23 am

      Good to stay positive and light about it. Which lotion are you referring to?



  12. Matt on April 25, 2017 at 5:53 pm

    I thought you have been using a lotion.



    • Follicle Thought on April 25, 2017 at 7:58 pm

      Oh yes, I understand. Article coming asap my friend.



      • tom on April 30, 2017 at 6:31 am

        Hi admin, article still coming?



        • Follicle Thought on April 30, 2017 at 9:58 am

          Yes it is. No date yet. Hang in there.



  13. Malcolm on May 1, 2017 at 6:55 am

    Rivertown’s website is currently down. Given the supposed “impressive” pictures they showed, I wonder whether the company is about to redesign its website, or otherwise, they are simply bowing out from their research.



    • Follicle Thought on May 1, 2017 at 9:57 am

      Website is working fine for me…



      • Malcolm on May 1, 2017 at 10:14 am

        The url address shows website underconstruction!



        • Follicle Thought on May 1, 2017 at 10:22 am

          I’m not sure why they haven’t changed that. I may let them know. http://www.rivertowntherapeutics.com/home/
          Enjoy your day brother.



          • Malcolm on May 1, 2017 at 10:58 am

            Thanks Joe,

            Kindly let us know the outcome of that cosmetic cream you’ve been trying out. Hopefully you’ll manage to restore a smile on a high norwood guy like myself!



          • Bob on May 2, 2017 at 7:50 am

            On February 16th 2017, Rivertown Therapeutics’ application for a patent to cover its novel RT1640 drug for AGA was published (link below). RT1640 is composed of three drugs (Minoxidil, Cyclosporine A and a propriety compound called RT175) which, synergistically, has led to “100% of the subjects treated to date with RT1640 have responded with robust hair growth, and in several instances, complete restoration of the hair.” Fortunately, the patent describes the chemical structure of RT175, the proportions of the three drugs in RT1640, photographs and preliminary experiments. Interestingly, it also refers to using their compound with laser skin perturbation to help induce hair growth. Follica may like to get in touch with Dr Weinstein…

            http://www.google.com/patents/US20170042859



            • Follicle Thought on May 2, 2017 at 9:38 am

              Interesting Bob, thanks.

              Are you able to see the photos in this link? I did not see any upon first glance.



  14. Louis Samuels on May 2, 2017 at 4:23 pm

    When it will be available? Thanks. Minox and fin don’t work for me.



    • Follicle Thought on May 2, 2017 at 5:09 pm

      In perhaps 3 or 4 years.



      • Chris2 on May 2, 2017 at 10:34 pm

        Hey Big Joe, 99.9 percent I figured out who your hair cream supplier is. I thought they were still trying to raise money to start trials just to see they are already in phase two. if I remember ,they came to you and they were one of your wild cards. Also ,they use your weekly thoughts on there web page. Now I can’t sleep till you give us the good news. To me which is good news two of there three ingredients are already approved. So here’s hoping. One last thing, does the noise from your hair growing keep you up at night.



        • Follicle Thought on May 3, 2017 at 9:56 am

          Good thing for that .1% haha. I said it was an otc cosmetic cream. My results are good, but I think you should keep your normal sleeping schedule. 😉



  15. guest on May 2, 2017 at 9:19 pm


  16. Follicle Thought on May 2, 2017 at 11:03 pm

    You guys paying attention to the Twitter feed on the side?



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