Allergan tests treatment for baldness

Hair-restoration expert Dr. Alan Bauman reported “modest hair growth” among patients

Oct 2010

Botox maker Allergan is about to launch clinical trials of a hair-growth treatment similar to its drug Latisse, which stimulates the growth of eyelashes.

The Phase 1 trial, scheduled to start this month, will focus on the safety of two formulations of bimatoprost, the active ingredient in Latisse.

This phase of the trials will include a total of about 28 patients – men with moderate male-pattern baldness and women with moderate female-pattern hair loss.

The FDA approved Latisse as a treatment for eyelashes, with a warning that it can cause hair growth on other parts of the body that come in contact with the drug.

Some doctors have already tried using Latisse as an “off-label” treatment for hair loss.

Hair-restoration expert Dr. Alan Bauman of Boca Raton, Fla., reported “modest hair growth” among patients who have been applying Latisse daily to their scalp.

Irvine-based Allergan might want more impressive results than that in order to make its hoped-for baldness remedy more commercially successful.
Bauman predicted that “Allergan will likely test a stronger concentration for the use on the scalp than the 0.03% bimatoprost found in Latisse.”

“If Phase One (safety) trials are successful and Phase Two and Three trials (efficacy) are eventually completed, bimatoprost could become the third FDA-approved drug for the treatment of baldness in men and only the second FDA-approved drug for women with hereditary hair thinning or female pattern baldness,” Bauman said. Those conditions affect an estimated 60-100 million Americans, he said.

The clinical trial will be run out of Tempe, Ariz.

Recruitment of volunteers has not yet begun, according to the description of the study that Allergan provided for the government’s Clinical Trials website.

That information includes a description of what’s required of volunteers and an email address for more information.

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