Baldness treatment in the works
RepliCel Life Sciences wants to turn back the clock on how you look and how you feel.
The Vancouver-based company is exploring the frontiers of regenerative medicine to treat injured tendons, pattern baldness and skin damaged by sun and age.
The world’s scientists have advanced from using chemical compounds to proteins and antibodies in their bid to reverse age-triggered wear and tear, says Lee Buckler, RepliCel’s vice-president of business and corporate development.
“We are the next wave of biotechnology. We use cells as medicines. We call this cell therapy,” Buckler says. “We’ll not only keep people looking younger but acting younger. It’s as much a matter of keeping the guy on the golf course as it is looking good while he’s golfing.”
At the core of RepliCel’s age-busting technology are cells called fibroblasts extracted from a patient’s own hair follicles. Fibroblasts produce Type 1 collagen, a protein that helps the body repair skin and connective tissue.
“It’s like personalized medicine. You don’t have to pump yourself full of synthetics anymore. This uses your own cells.”
Injections of fibroblasts have been proven in the lab to help tendons repair themselves, reduce wrinkles and tone up skin, Buckler says. A different set of cells extracted from follicles is used to regenerate hair.
The company has embarked on an aggressive program of trials on human subjects to prove to health regulators its approaches are safe and effective.
The need for three sets of trials for each therapy means RepliCel’s therapies are several years away from reaching the North American market, Buckler says.
RepliCel scored a coup in 2013 when it formed a partnership with Japanese cosmetic giant Shiseido. That partnership, and Japanese regulatory changes, mean RepliCel’s pattern baldness treatment will likely reach the Japanese market sooner than anywhere else, Buckler says.
Formed in 2010, RepliCel trades on the TSX venture exchange and employs about a dozen people.