MrFox

The pathologist is most likely referring to follicular units rather than hairs. Otherwise the control would have had 80% of the follicles harvested, which did not happen. I think if that is the case, then 10 hair follicular units per the punch site would be practically speaking full regeneration. 1 follicular unit off could be down to multiple reasons, including personal genetics or randomness of your own hair growth density. What I noticed is how many grafts are in the catagen phase from the test area. I wonder if more time is going to yield better visual results? Doesn’t that mean that the hairs must be cycling? Any thoughts?

I think that's pretty clear cut that the drug has had a substantial effect! Very exciting news! Are you still planning on setting up an interview with @Melvin- Moderator to discuss the results? It would also be great if you could talk about the upcoming trials as well!

Great news, It looks like Dr. Bloxham is planning on doing a mini FUT trial with Verteporfin starting in March. He just updated us all on the discord channel.

I've noticed this as well, it just seems like such a small amount to get in all the areas of your scalp. I have coarser hair in the areas that I'm trying to prevent from balding and it just feels like it gets caught on the follicles instead of on the scalp. I feel like you don't have enough to cover the entire scalp with the daily dose, sides, back, and top.

From my understanding, it is not the patent that is the issue but rather that it has not been deemed profitable to create a new production line for Verteporfin. I don't think the price is really the issue, rather the availability of Verteporfin as well as the fact that it is being used off-label for a different intended use. While I agree $1800 is expensive it's not so expensive as to prohibit testing. I would be surprised if people weren't willing to pay a few $1,000 more in order to have substantially less scaring in the donor zone.

I'm not really sure how they purchased it from third parties, I wasn't part of the group buy. The only brand name is owned by Bausch & Lomb, there isn't a generic producer of the drug as far as I am aware, hence the shortages. If you're buying the real thing you would have to buy the whole bottle i believe which is 15 mg and then it would depend on the amount of area being used and the concentration. The average scalp of a human is about 700 cm2 and the highest dose was .40 cm2. So unless I'm missing something you would need about 18 bottles for the whole head, but this is just what I was able to find. That isn't necessarily the price or amount that would be needed in the end. I imagine if a clinic is using it enough, they would be able to source it higher quanties for less price.

It's sold under Bausch & Lomb and the sole manufacturing line in the world is in the U.S.A. They have upped production since the shortage began but they expect supplies to be limited until the end of 2023, with priority being given to ophthalmologist that use the drug for it's patented use with certain diseases affecting the eyes. I believe the 15 mg bottle goes for $1800.

Yes, there is a global shortage as there is only one production line in one factory producing the brand name Verteporfin.

Well Dr. Bloxham has stated that he is wanting to test, it seems like he is working towards testing it on a mini FUT incision. It might be sourcing that is a problem for many of the doctors, because of the shortage. Idk, I think a lot of it might be that so many people have been burned before. There are always promising cures that come and go. That being said even what we have seen so far from the trial from Dr. B is substantially more progress than any other cure that has come along, so I am also at a loss as to why more surgeons have not shown interest in at least trying Vertporfin in the donor area.

This tread is to discuss the topic of Verteporfin for hair regeneration and wound healing. Please post any ideas or questions here rather on the other tread in order to keep that tread open for updates by Dr. Barghouthi or other Dr's testing Verteporfin.

Dr. B was planning on wounding the DHT sensitive area on his next test so it's not irrelevant, but sure if we want to make another thread then that's fine with me.

Yeah neither do you, you're making an assumption that it can only be repeated so many times! Yes of course the hair is DHT sensitive again, hence the drugs which we know stop hair loss for the vast majority of people with male patterned baldness.

Again I would ask why do you need to transplant the hair? Just injure the balding area and use Verteporfin in the same way you would in the donor zone. If it grows hair in the donor zone it will grow hair in the balding zone. There is NO evidence the drug differentiates between balding and non-balding regions. I think there is an assumption that there needs to be existing non-miniaturized follicles beforehand, but there is no evidence for this. It is already strongly recommended that people who receive a transplant stay on finasteride/dutasteride, so I really don't see why we are adding an unnecessary step, unless the patient is unable to use the medication for whatever reason. No offense to any surgeon on here, but even they would concede that they are not able to reproduce 100% what is found naturally. They are limited with what they have to work with. With transplantation, you would still be using grafts that are larger than normally found in the hairline, as well as problems with color, density, etc. Perhaps if there is still some scarring left over then this would not be ideal approach, but yet again we have only tried one test on one patient. I would be shocked if we nailed the absolute best results possible on the first test. It could be feasible that treatments would consist of some sort of injury device (i.e. modified micro-needling) along with the application of Verteporfin. Not to mention that transplantation is not recommended for certain types of alopecia. For example retrograde alopecia is not typically treated through transplantation, but could possibly be treated through a protocol as described above.

Me too!

I agree that this could be an option for those people who do not want to take the drug for whatever reason. I just reject the notion that this is the way the industry should be moving forward because clinics want to continue transplanting hair. It would be an extra step that is not needed for most patients. I continue to see this idea pushed forward, almost as if people assume that verteporfin would only work in the "safe donor zone" or where existing hair follicles are present. There is absolutely no evidence that it works that way, and why would it?! The only reason we started in the donor area, to begin with, was that that option provided the least risk to the patient. Scarring would be in an area that is easily disguised.

We still don't know how much hair can be regenerated by Verteporfin, we still need a lot more testing. If it recovers follicles and skin fully, then yes I would say it is the cure. That being said I don't personally believe transplantation will be needed. As long as the patient stayed on dutasteride or finasteride (topical or oral) you could potentially injure the area being affected by balding inject vertporfin and have hair grow in the balding area rather than transplanting hair from another region. This could be a potential cure for several types of alopecia. I also believe there would be a large need to heal existing scars from previous transplantation.

Everything I have read and heard indicates that as long as the scar tissue is completely removed then the wound would heal the same as any other wound that was treated with Verteporfin. The lead researcher Dr. Longaker has been quoted as saying this multiple times. Obviously we need a test to verify it though.

From the discord group it sounded like he already has a patient in mind but it is still figuring out all the variables involved. Definitely good to have more testing going on!

Perhaps reach out to Dr. Bloxham, he has shown interest in testing Vert on FUT.

Is there any strong evidence that FAK works better than Verteporfin though? I know it works upstream of Verteporfin but does that mean it will undoubtedly provide better results?

Wasn't that the same for Botox though? It was not approved to be used for facial wrinkles but they started using it off label by 1993. I don't think it was FDA approved for facial wrinkles until 2013, but clearly was widely used before that point. Why would it be different with Verteporfin? Even Dr. Longaker has stated he thought it would be used off label almost immediately.

I think this may be someone who tried multiple scar revisions with Verteporfin and was updating people on Telegram. He did use Verteporfin so this is promising. It's not the most controlled experiment, but that being said the skin really does look like the surrounding tissue, minus the redness.

Should be on or around October 9th.

I agree that a zoomed out image or even a video at the end would be helpful. It's hard to tell with the flash sometimes what is scar tissue and what is skin. Even when we look at what we know is scar tissue it can be hard to distinguish when zoomed in. If the area is shaved and you zoom out you will definitely see the pattern of follicle extractions if there is scar tissue. It catches our eyes easier because we can distinguish the pattern.