Allergan Invests $25 Million Into New Hair Loss Drugs

The medical aesthetic giant Allergan is doubling down on its mission to cure baldness.

Collaboration With Exicure

Did it seem like research and development was slowing down in the hair growth treatment sector? Allergan doesn’t think so. Today, November 14, 2019, it was announced that Allergan has invested $25 million in the company Exicure to development treatments for hair loss. Exicure is a biotechnology company based in Skokie, Illinois developing numerous therapeutics for inflammatory diseases with its proprietary spherical nucleic acid or SNA technology. Under the agreement with Allergan, Exicure will be leading not one, but two research programs in alopecia. According to today’s press release, Exicure will be eligible to receive development milestone payments up to $97.5 million for each program.

This is most likely the largest investment ever made into a cure for hair loss and signifies great potential for these treatments. Though the specific mechanisms of actions for Exicure’s alopecia programs have not been discussed yet, an SNA-based treatment would be targeting the root causes of hair loss at a genetic level. Could this be the start of a “miracle” treatment for baldness which can effectively prevent hair loss for life or regrow a full head of hair? We will have to see, but compared to a standard small molecules or peptide, the approach from Exicure is far more advanced. The video below gives a brief look at the background of Exicure’s technology.

Allergan’s Hair Growth Research Programs

It’s no secret that Allergan has long been interested in becoming a leader in hair loss therapies. The company took a swing at the DP2 antagonist drug setipiprant last year, however, results from that clinical trial were not breathtaking and the project has since been shelved. Allergan is back with a vengeance in 2019 though, announcing three new collaborative projects to beat baldness. Many will remember the announcement made in June that Allergan had invested $3 million into Stemson Therapeutics, the company founded by Dr. Alexey Terskikh which seeks to create new hair follicles from iPSCs. Let’s also not forget Allergan’s agreement to acquire Pelage pharmaceutical’s multiple compounds which stimulate hair follicle stem cells pending results from their initial clinical trials. It’s safe to say that Allergan is the most heavily invested pharmaceutical company in the hair space. And remember, these are only the projects that we currently know about. According to an investor conference call in 2018, the company has ongoing research with several academic institutions to treat hair loss and reverse gray hair. Carry on, Allergan.

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