Money is not the issue. They have loads of money for a startup, and they're moving very fast. The problem is regulators. They know very well they are sitting on a gold mine. Most biotech startups are lucky to be able to do a single trial. HMI is already preparing for clinical trials in fibroid duct disease in addition to the two other indications they have going, and they're doing preclinical work on rheumatioid arthiritis and other diseases.
HMI-115 PRLR antibody: The Most Promising Treatment Ever
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waynakyo
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Thanks for this outstanding summary and post. I have my suspicions however, having dealt with chinese companies for some time...
1. Bayer is a HUGE biopharma. They did not shift the company entirely to women health nor esg. It is a monster, they do stuff from phara to agri. They know what the Androgenetic Alopecia market is worth.
2. They chose to license it to a tiny startup in series A ... in China.
I just looked up the company, it seems like the founder has given the CEO role to Henri Doods who was with a european pharma before. Was searching that guy, not much on him, but he looks legit.
By the way are they doing clinical trials in China? Too bad they did not try Japan either... I wonder why Australia..
Also I am not sure I understand why knowing they were approved for phase 2 in the US, they decided to focus first on phase 1 in Australia...
There is something we are missing here..
(For those who never watched the documentary "The China Hustle" I highly recommend it .. )
1. Bayer is a HUGE biopharma. They did not shift the company entirely to women health nor esg. It is a monster, they do stuff from phara to agri. They know what the Androgenetic Alopecia market is worth.
2. They chose to license it to a tiny startup in series A ... in China.
I just looked up the company, it seems like the founder has given the CEO role to Henri Doods who was with a european pharma before. Was searching that guy, not much on him, but he looks legit.
By the way are they doing clinical trials in China? Too bad they did not try Japan either... I wonder why Australia..
Also I am not sure I understand why knowing they were approved for phase 2 in the US, they decided to focus first on phase 1 in Australia...
There is something we are missing here..
(For those who never watched the documentary "The China Hustle" I highly recommend it .. )
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The founder is an eminent scientist with the University of Beijing. They received an ungodly amount of money from some astute investors in the field for a fresh startup with very little but a licensing agreement for a single drug. This is no scam. Bayer does lots of stuff, but at the time they were not interested in hair loss. This is not uncommon. Large pharmaceuticals license out profitable drugs that don't fit their development pathway all the time. They have limited resources. If they have to pull resources away from another department then they will license the drug out instead. Regarding your second point, they apparently had other interested parties. China made the best offer. Probably because they were the ones who conducted the macaque trial so they knew it was legit. If they wanted to scam people they wouldn't do it by licensing something from Bayer, they would come up with their own drug.
They never intended to have a US only phase 2. They were planning a global phase 2 to be conducted in Europe, China, Australia, and the US. Australian regulators are being ridiculous so they have to do a phase I there. Apparently they still want the phase 2 to be global. I imagine that's why they have not started a phase 2 in the US yet. Then again they could be waiting for German regulators. It does make sense to have a phase II in the northern and southern hemispheres as seasonal shedding is a result of prolactin which is modulated by sunlight.
Nobody tried it. You're thinking of SMI-6. People tried that, but there wasn't a lot of success. It is a competitive inhibitor of the PRLR, meaning that if prolactin beats it to the receptor it can't block it. HMI-115 is a non-competitive antagonist, meaning that it can bind to and inactivate the receptor even when prolactin is already bound to it. That makes it a lot more potent.
I don't know. It would be meaningless as far as hair growth is concerned. What matters is the level of Prl and PRLR in the HF. This has not been measured in eunuchs. It has nothing to do with serum prolactin levels. Serum prolactin can be high while intrafollicular prolactin is low and vice versa.
waynakyo
Experienced Member
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OK, sorry I am not reading the details (traveling but your post got my attention) but there is this post about prolactin antibody by Bayer..
Are we talking about the same study?
Are we talking about the same study?
Yes. Someone was speculating that HMI would scrap the mAb in favor of an mRNA that generates the antibody. That is not going to happen because it would mean starting over from scratch.
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Me too.
I bet you do
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i wonder how the physiology differs between male and female with respect to prolactin activity in the hair follicle and if males are more sensitive than females
if there is one thing that we know is that Enuchs (that had their balls cut before puberty) NEVER develop male pattern baldness so it's a good "control group" if you want to understand what's male pattern baldness could even be.
Apparently, it promotes hair growth in females so it's not simply about prolactin
I think you misunderstood. I meant that the serum levels of prolactin in eunuchs would be irrelevant. Knowing the intrafollicular levels would help validate the treatment. Serum levels of prolactin have no connection to Androgenetic Alopecia, only intrafollicular levels.
Females have androgenetic alopecia too.
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