Summary
“Leo” is an unnamed hair loss drug being researched by a Danish pharmaceutical company. The company has a licensing/development agreement with Johnson & Johnson in the United States. The drug has completed animal safety studies and is now being studied in small human trials which are scheduled to last through the end of summer 1999. There is no confirmed information available yet regarding specifics on the treatment or how effective it is.
Treatment Type
Unknown / Rumor says that it is a Potassium Channel Opener similar to Minoxidil but more effective (reported by two sources not linked to company).
Testing Progress
Animal safety studies completed.
Small scale human studies now underway supposedly to be completed summer 1999 and announced in October or November of 1999.
Clinical Results
Unknown (Rumored reports to be 3x more effective than Minoxidil 2%)
Notes
There is not much specific information available yet so it is hard to determine how likely it is that this will be an effective treatment.
The following email was sent to us, but has not been confirmed yet by Leo. We are now in contact with Leo and hope to have more information as well as confirmation of this soon:
“I visited Leo Pharm. quite recently. They told us briefly about their product. Since they told us, I guess these things are not a secret. They said that minoxidil is not working for 50% of men because there is an enzyme in the skin that transforms minoxidil to a potassium channel opener, and in 50% of men this enzyme is lacking. On the contrary, Leo´s product works directly as a potassiun channel opener and therefor is more effective. Judging from a slide that they briefly showed, Leo´s product (called p1075) works 3 times better than minoxidil 2%. I cannot confirm any of these facts”
