J. Hewitt To Trial Hair Multiplication In 2019

J. Hewitt, a regenerative medicine company from Japan, has told Follicle Thought they plan to start a pivotal hair multiplication clinical trial in Japan by the end of the year.

J.Hewitt & TissUse SHT Collaboration

In early 2019, TissUse issued a press release announcing it had granted J. Hewitt of Japan the first license to develop and commercialize its Smart Hair Transplant (SHT) technology for hair multiplication. This was great news to hear and the first communication from the company in quite some time. The model for SHT is similar to other hair multiplication therapies we are familiar with. In the SHT process 30 hair follicles are extracted from the back of the scalp, dermal papilla cells are isolated from the follicles and multiplied in culture, and this yields a sum of 10,000 “neo-papillae” which would then be injected back into the scalp. (a webpage for SHT on Tissuse’s website is no longer active after being published in 2017)

The TissUse SHT technology stems from research led by Drs. Roland Lauster and Gerd Lindner of the Univeristy of Berlin. Back in 2011, a video featuring the UoB researchers showcased their efforts in developing a hair follicle outside of the body. Since then, their work has been highly regarded throughout the industry and was also presented at a World Congress for Hair Research.

Announcement From CEO

I had the opportunity to get in touch with J. Hewitt’s CEO Dr. Jon Knight recently and he was kind enough to share a major news update with the readers of Follicle Thought (thanks to Fuji for the introduction). This is the type of news readers are waiting everyday to hear. Here’s what Knight had to say about the clinical development of SHT:

“We will start with 5 Japanese patients- maybe three men and two women or four men and just one woman but only Japanese subjects. We are planning by December of 2019 to start.

If successful, SHT can be offered to patients around the world who would come to Japan, have hair biopsies, and then return in 45 days for injection of the Neo-papilla. So we will know this year I believe if SHT is a viable treatment. It will not take years like Tsuji, etc..it will be much, much sooner.

My record for Aesthetic Regenerative Medicine is starting with PRP injections for wrinkles in humans in 2005 as the first in the world, and my goal is to do things quickly and then see the results and know if it works.”

My initial reaction is wow. This is the type of CEO that the internet hair community has been waiting for over the last 20 years. He sought out a treatment with extremely high potential and is going to put it to the clinical test immediately. No years of waiting for delayed results and no confusion about the status of a company’s progress. J. Hewitt is focused. Most readers are also well aware of the regulations in Japan which would allow for an expedited approval of this technology if it were to meet clinical endpoints after its first trial. It’s a serendipitous location for the SHT technology and could put J. Hewitt in a position no one would have predicted just a few months ago.

Bottom line, J. Hewitt is planning to trial a new hair multiplication therapy in December 2019 and the company is going to prove quickly if it works. If trials are successful, expect commercialization to follow shortly thereafter. This is among the most important clinical news that has been announced in the past several years of the hair restoration industry.

See Comments section below for Updates from J. Hewitt CEO.



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