Medicinal approach

For some years, men have had "finasteride" (marketed by Merck as "Propecia") available to halt progressive hair loss. I thought others might be interested in something that was written in my local newspaper, the St. Petersburg (FL) Times, July 2, 2004. Following is an excerpt from an article entitled "HAIRRAISING":


"... on the horizon is a promising drug called dutasteride, being tested by Merck for its hair-growing ability. Like Propecia, dutasteride was originally approved to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia, an enlargement of the prostate gland, by blocking DHT. But because Propecia blocks only one of the two types of DHT and dutasteride blocks both, doctors expect it will work even better, and some are already cautiously giving it to their hair-loss patients when other medical therapies have failed. A spokesman for Merck said the company has not yet decided how far it will go in studying dutasteride as a hair-loss remedy, but the company is preparing the results of a study for publication in a medical journal."