Confused why people are calling PP405 a cure...it never claimed to be able to undo miniaturization or revert vellus back to terminal hairs. It seems to be more of a growth stimulant like minoxidil.

I hate to be a downer...trust me, I'm as desperate for a cure as anyone being a young woman with aggressive androgenetic alopecia. I would give ANYTHING to have my hair (and sanity) back. BUT I think there's a lot of sweeping assumptions and leaps being made about PP405.

For one, the drug is only ever discussed by Pelage as being able to re-activate dormant hair follicles...NOT restoring miniaturized hairs or vellus hairs. This seems to be more in line with minoxidil. Many theorize that people who experience the best regrowth from minox (while others see none), regrow it because those hair follicles were simply arrested and dormant, not actually aggressively miniaturized or turned into vellus hairs. This is also supported by most studies reflecting little to no changes in actual vellus hair count even with effective treatments...simply the T:V ratio being better (because dormant terminal hairs are re-activated).

Therefore, it seems that PP405's capabilities are more about spurring those dormant hair follicles back into growth. This is great, and the mechanism is revolutionary; however, it does not indicate promise of bringing back miniaturized or vellus hairs.

Additionally, everyone seems to be discussing February of this year as a big release date. However, it's simply the end of phase 2a trials....the reports typically take much longer. And when I emailed Pelage, they actually stated that the trials would be going on through the entirety of 2025. Can't quite make sense of that, but alas.

Investment by Google is cool since they've certainly picked some winners, but venture funds invest in a LOT of companies just to get those few gems. The amount is also not that spectacular relative to the size of the opportunity of a hair loss cure. While investment from someone like Google V indicates promise, I'd say if it was truly a hot lead as a full-on cure capable of doing more than stimulating dormant follicles (as current methods do), it would have garnered a farrrr higher investment amount than it got.

And finally....those images. The miraculous 48-hour hair growth. They keep circulating, but it's been made clear multiple times that these are not legitimate before and afters of the same location. Rather, simply images of different parts of the scalp, and therefore not indicative of hair growth.

So while I'm always excited too see research for hair loss (especially some inclusive of women, which is a rarity), I think we may be setting ourselves up for some serious heartbreak by making all of these big assumptions that it is a cure.

If someone has any keen insights that would actually point to PP405 as a mechanism capable of un-miniaturizing hair and returning vellus into terminal, please feel free to share as I'd love to be proven wrong on this one. But if it was capable of that, I think Pelage would be sharing that as a lead claim given it would set it apart and garner far more attention if it could make that statement.