Science Molecule PP405: A Research Team Backed By Google Ventures Has Discovered One Of The Most Promising Solutions For Hair Loss To Date

https://wccftech.com/molecule-pp405-a-research-team-backed-by-google-ventures-has-discovered-one-of-the-most-promising-solutions-for-hair-loss-to-date/

https://archive.ph/jaAn6

Rohail Saleem • May 11, 2025

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

Persistent hair loss is a non-life-threatening yet debilitating condition that adversely affects self-confidence, potentially constituting a major trigger for anxiety and depression.

It is hardly a surprise, therefore, that the market size of hair loss treatment products, including shampoos, conditioners, and serums, in the US alone is currently estimated at $2.22 billion. Critically, this estimation does not include pharmaceutical interventions such as Minoxidil-based products, hair transplant procedures, or other niche treatments such as Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP).

Now, however, there is a new cause for optimism among the millions of people around the world that continue to suffer as a result of age-related or premature hair loss.

https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1921593642210484623 (archive)


To wit, a UCLA research team has now developed the molecule PP405, which when applied topically, can re-activate dormant hair follicles without any major side effects (as per the results of early trials).

The research team has also founded Pelage Pharmaceuticals, a medical development company that is backed by Google Ventures, to market the drug.

In fact, PP405 can stimulate the growth of thick, terminal hair in as little as a week, and that too without the fertility-related issues presented by alternative treatments such as Minoxidil. Moreover, the drug showed no systemic body absorption or detectable levels in blood samples, as per the results of clinical trials to date.

On the granular level, PP405 is able to activate stem cells that would otherwise lie dormant within hair follicles. These stem cells then go on to produce new, terminal hair.

Of course, you will have to wait a little while longer to get your hands on PP405, which is currently undergoing phase 2 trials in the US. If everything checks out, PP405-based hair loss treatments are expected to hit the market between 2027 and 2030.

 

[Storytime]

what kind of fucking news article cites mario nawfal (#1 elon dick rider) nigga what the fuck

 

[Mound Dweller]

Ha ha, bald.

in the US alone is currently estimated at $2.22 billion

This is a bit silly, seething is expected but this level of cope is ridiculous.

 

[Burnt Effigy]

Ha ha, bald.

This is a bit silly, seething is expected but this level of cope is ridiculous.

Any industry that bases itself upon something that affects large parts of the population's status makes bank, no matter how snakeoiley it may be.

"Male enhancement" supplements, as in, literal dick pills (and JUST those, sildenafil and such are medication, not supplements) are a $2.1 billion industry.
The height increasing insoles (for people who can't accept being manlets) industry is $4.3 billion.
The weight loss industry as a whole is over $150 billion.

If anything, the anti-balding industry is oddly small.

 

[Positron]

Ha ha, bald.

This is a bit silly, seething is expected but this level of cope is ridiculous.

Feminists love to parade "male fragility", and modern Western men's obsession with hair loss make their charge hard to deny.

 

[Otterly]

That’s great. Hair loss is distressing and anyone curing it will make bank.
looking at the press release they claim it’s enrolling women and men into the trial (good, big market for women as well) . It’s non hormonal (good.)
They claim that the molecule is absorbed well by skin but has no detectable presence in blood (interesting, would need to see a lot of work to prove that because…)
… they claim it’s reactivating stem cells in the follicle.
General stem cell activation in the body may have all sorts of effects so you’d want this to be very targeted.
And if you can target specific stem cell compartments that’s even more interesting

 

[cybertoaster]

All those furries in biomed are gonna have field day with this...

The height increasing insoles (for people who can't accept being manlets) industry is $4.3 billion.

You shitting me right? never knew anyone who used those shitty insoles but its almost bigger than hairloss and dickpills combined?

 

[Iron Jaguar]

without any major side effects

Erectile dysfunction? Tumours? Growing a second head? - Minor side effects! Trust the Science!

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

All those furries in biomed are gonna have field day with this...

You shitting me right? never knew anyone who used those shitty insoles but its almost bigger than hairloss and dickpills combined?

I'd believe it if it included comfort gel/foam insoles. The things that cost $5-10 at every supermarket.

 

[Otterly]

Erectile dysfunction? Tumours? Growing a second head? - Minor side effects! Trust the Science!

It’s non hormonal, so it shouldn’t break your dick. It targets stem cells, so tumours aren’t off the table yet… zaphod beeblebrox outcome? Probably not

 

[Captain Ahab]

Meanwhile I’m shaving my head every week just so I don’t have to wash it after every workout and to trigger libs in public. I’d rather have the opposite effect, a product that turns the follicles dormant. Never been much of a hair person. It’s so much hassle to maintain and haircuts are expensive. I love a breeze of fresh air on my shaved head after a shower at the gym.

 

[Fred Jones -Traplord]

Bald people genocide, Our people are being destroyed. We must secure the existence of our people and the future of bald children.

 

[Spud]

You will take my tasteful Norwood 3 from my cold dead hands.

 

[elite_club]

Erectile dysfunction? Tumours? Growing a second head? - Minor side effects! Trust the Science!

Given that those are the typical side effects of current hair loss treatments, I'm pretty sure the whole point of this compound getting attention is that it avoids those particular, major, side effects.

Any industry that bases itself upon something that affects large parts of the population's status makes bank, no matter how snakeoiley it may be.

"Male enhancement" supplements, as in, literal dick pills (and JUST those, sildenafil and such are medication, not supplements) are a $2.1 billion industry.
The height increasing insoles (for people who can't accept being manlets) industry is $4.3 billion.
The weight loss industry as a whole is over $150 billion.

If anything, the anti-balding industry is oddly small.

Easily explained when you consider most treatments either involve surgically transplanting skin with active hair follicles, hormonal treatment that breaks your dick, snake oil, or a combination of the three. Honestly I'd rather go bald than have a permanently limp wiener.

 

[Tanuki Mixed Nuts]

Ha ha, bald.

This is a bit silly, seething is expected but this level of cope is ridiculous.

People are invested in their appearances, who knew? It's hardly a cope when you can just extrapolate the copious amounts of money people in general spend on cosmetics, and who those cosmetics are marketed to.


[Source]

 

[Iron Jaguar]

Ha ha, bald.

This is a bit silly, seething is expected but this level of cope is ridiculous.

Pretty ironic for a woman to criticise a man for vanity.

Anyway, most women don't seem to care very much if their man loses his hair. They're much more concerned if he loses his wealth.

 

[Burnt Effigy]

All those furries in biomed are gonna have field day with this...

You shitting me right? never knew anyone who used those shitty insoles but its almost bigger than hairloss and dickpills combined?

Height increasing stuff is made to be invisible.

This is the most classic kind, an insert that basically pushes your heel up in a shoe, these are common, cheap, and can make you look up to 3 inches taller. One inch is basically impossible to spot.


Then, you have shoes built with this in mind, they have various internal shapes that don't line up with what you would expect

Looks like a normal shoe, right? This one makes you gain 3 inches. These look completely normal from the outside, and, with covered ankles, are impossible to notice.


And this boot, which is starting to look weird, about 5 inches.


Finally, while it does start to look ridiculous, you can find absurdities that go up to 7 inches.




The only way to spot (well built) 3 inch elevator shoes is to see the way the back of the shoe looks like where it meets the ankle.


There is a very distinct curve at the back of the shoe, whereas a normal shoe of that style should have the leg and the back of the shoe be parallel.
Once you know this, you'll notice it in any field where power is important (legal, banking, c-suite, etc...), where both men and women want to look taller.

Plus, it's something that you notice when you compare height statistics with the world around you.
While people are slowly getting taller, the amount of people that look 6ft2 or taller suggests either, somehow, there's a bunch of 5ft3 men that literally never leave their houses keeping the stats down, or lifts are just that common.

 

[Mound Dweller]

Pretty ironic for a woman to criticise a man for vanity.

I reserve the right to dab on baldies who are genetically inferior enough to both lack the capacity to maintain hair and the mental fortitude to deal with it.

Anyway, most women don't seem to care very much if their man loses his hair. They're much more concerned if he loses his wealth.

That speaks more strongly to the quality of the wahmen I would say, but in terms of objectivity; baldness worse, untermensch wouldn't spend so much fiat trying to offset it otherwise would they.

 

[Aquinas 2]

Good news for the Brave Transmasculine men such as @Null, surely this will ease them into comfort

 

[Yugica]

I remember there was a protein that was being looked into to reverse hair loss before this. "SCUBE3", also quoting from the article I linked:

“At different times during the hair follicle life cycle, the very same dermal papilla cells can send signals that either keep follicles dormant or trigger new hair growth,” [...] “We revealed that the SCUBE3 signaling molecule, which dermal papilla cells produce naturally, is the messenger used to ‘tell’ the neighboring hair stem cells to start dividing, which heralds the onset of new hair growth.”

I wonder how all that has gone.