Can someone explain why clinical trials take so long?

[Vox]

But hey you can still get chicks if you're bald, as long as you have a slim body and good wit and charisma.

You may be right in this after all. Although I am NW7, I am a very slim for my age (below 60 kg) and rather intellectual-looking guy (or so I was told). Last year I saw an old friend after many years apart and she could not hide her surprise saying she has not seen anyone that slim at this age, not even remotely close, something like a teen. She also found very cool and well fit the hats I usually wear when necessary.

Of course this is just one example and I cannot know how many women pay attention to that. From my experience in some countries women like men more "filled" and not like me.

Stay physically active, healthy, fit, emotionally and psychologically balanced and you'll do just fine, hair or no hair.

This is a very good advice, hair or no hair.

 

[andrei_eremenko]

I am really tempted to think that HM will never be a reallity...maybe the only solution will be some scalp transplantation...or something...

 

[Vanzzzz]

I am really tempted to think that HM will never be a reallity...maybe the only solution will be some scalp transplantation...or something...

What happened to your optimism man? Is aderans about HM, I think they clone something to stimulate dormant hair follicles right?

 

[andrei_eremenko]

no...i think some people just don't understand this concept of HM...

firs of all...histongen is not an HM...it will be a treatment...when you speak about HM you have to think at word multiplication or cloning...and you will find out that means that you can make from a hair - 2 hairs or even millions and so on...
In my opinion aderans is trying to produce hair multiplying the cells from your existing follicles...correct me if I am wrong...I am pessimistic a bit...because I am looking around and maybe this is just a futuristic plan...in my opinion for example a scalp transplantation it will be a more realistic plan...for example I read somewhere that scientist are trying to reduce the period of taking imunosuppresant to 1 week...hope that one day will cure the crap and us still be alive...

 

[bigentries]

You got to be kidding me if you think scalp transplants are ever going to be a reality.

Just imagine the headlines, old rich white males buying hair from dead people to fix a cosmetic problem :whistle:
Kids and women with cancer could pull it off, but if you consider yourself a social pariah just wait until people find out how you got a head full of hair.

Hell, I hope it never happens, it would create an stigma for any type of hair restoration treatment.

And about the trials.
It's cool to hear all the news. But never believe any deadline.
The day we see the real deal, it would still be some years away from the market and our wallets.

 

[andrei_eremenko]

the scientists are trying to do this...for cosmetical and burning or wounds issues

 

[Vox]

the scientists are trying to do this...for cosmetical and burning or wounds issues

Scalp transplant or other advanced, by today's standards, tissue restaurations will probably be part of medical practices in the next few centuries or millenaries, if ever.

 

[andrei_eremenko]

the scientists are trying to do this...for cosmetical and burning or wounds issues

Scalp transplant or other advanced, by today's standards, tissue restaurations will probably be part of medical practices in the next few centuries or millenaries, if ever.

hey...they are already doing face transplants...so a scalp transplant it would be much easier...as you don't have to move your mouth lips and so on...but...this will not take centuries or milenaries...you will see that not far from this time they will try it...

 

[Vox]

hey...they are already doing face transplants...

Is this a perfected routine cosmetic surgery today or just the last resort for someone badly injured and willing to live with whatever complications this will bring to his/her life? There is a huge difference between the two.

 

[andrei_eremenko]

yea ...it is not cosmetic...but I wanted to say that the outcome it wont be so ridiculous how you have thought...it would be some fine scars I think but that it will be covered by hair...nowdays it can not be done just simply because in my opinion nobody can have a certain diagnostic for male pattern baldness...so you can risk to take a scalp that it could become bald...I really think that it wont be so much time till something new will be available...and to be able to change lives of balding people...

 

[somone uk]

i wish medical professinals had more faith in computer modeling
chemistry and physics relies extensively on maths and computers to determine the outcome of a problem but biology (and medicine) is left in this dark age of trial and error
very little is invested in computer modeling and it has the potental for shorter, cheaper and more comprehensive clinical trials
only if the FDA could recognise such a technology :dunno:

more info
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/11/ff_archimedes

 

[Boondock]

i wish medical professinals had more faith in computer modeling
chemistry and physics relies extensively on maths and computers to determine the outcome of a problem but biology (and medicine) is left in this dark age of trial and error
very little is invested in computer modeling and it has the potental for shorter, cheaper and more comprehensive clinical trials
only if the FDA could recognise such a technology :dunno:

more info
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/11/ff_archimedes

Medicine is different, in my opinion. For two reasons.

First, the body has not yet (to my knowledge) been successfully modelled on any computer. It seems strange that it's more complex than many physical systems, but it is.

Second, you really can't take chances in this field. There have been enough c***-ups even with the current testing procedures. I for one wouldn't want to take any chances here.

Hair loss sucks, but growing cancer all over your skull is worse. And that's a genuine risk in these new therapies.

 

[kthxbi]

Well, you would need a bio-reactor that can create embryonic conditions among which low gravity. I'm sure it's hard to get one of those.

this post is f*cking awesome haha, kudos

 

[pproctor]

i wish medical professinals had more faith in computer modeling
chemistry and physics relies extensively on maths and computers to determine the outcome of a problem but biology (and medicine) is left in this dark age of trial and error
very little is invested in computer modeling and it has the potental for shorter, cheaper and more comprehensive clinical trials
only if the FDA could recognise such a technology :dunno:

more info
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/11/ff_archimedes

I published my first research paper taking advantage of molecular orbital calculations in 1970 (
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v2 ... 868a0.html ). So " computor pharmacology " has long been useful.

Unfortunately, we still don't know enough of what happens at the cellular and organismal level to take full advantage of computor modeling. However, computor modeling is often good for (e.g.) figuring out the size and shape of a receptor site and designing a drug that will fit it. Unfortunately, other stuff like pharmacokinetics, etc. are also at least as important, as a practical matter. When you get to this level, it's mostly empirical.

Still, computor techniques are good for developing series of drugs to try. Even there, sometimes the decision about which drug goes to trial depends on purely-extraneous matters like the patent situation.

Because I was right in the middle of it, the example I know about best is the use of a PBN derivative ( NXY-059 ) rather than PBN in the experimental treatment of stroke. This was largely because the patent situation was better with NXY-059 --- not all those pesky prior patents or prior art. Anyway, the trial crashed.

Peter H Proctor, PhD,MD