Good and bad news for those going thin on top

Press, 19 February 1987, Page 20

Good and bad news for those going thin on top

A cure for baldness has suddenly become a distinct possibility. Unfortunately, the cure is no mere cosmetic, but a potent drug developed originally for people suffering from heart attacks. 'The Food and Drug Administration is deliberating over whether to approve Upjohn’s hair-restoring cream (called Regaine) for sale in America on prescription. If it does, it will be setting a dangerous precedent. For Regaine is the first of a new breed of. cosmetics that will work, not merely as an inert' coating on top of the skin, but by attacking the body’s chemistry. A generation ago, thalidomide showed the potential that drugs hold for human tragedy, when side-effects appear only after millions of people have taken them.

Until now, people who were not 111 but who took drugs were either hypochondriacs or addicts. Regaine is a drug for people who have nothing wrong with them. It is not the first such drug: oral contraceptives do not treat disease, but arguably their health and social benefits outweigh any possible side-effects. Regaine’s only effect is cosmetic, but chemically it has nothing in common with familiar concoctions of chalk, talc, kaolin and pigments whose sole func-

tion is to cleanse pr emolliate the skin. Upjohn’s drug actively interferes with the bodily processes, possibly (nobody is sure) by increasing the blood supply to the hair follicles.

Approval of a cosmetic drug like Regaine would break new ground, allowing many more “life-enhancers” to hit the market.

In the queue are new types of slimming pills. Others boost the memory powers of forgetful people. There are new soberingup pills for drinkers wanting to drive.

Some of these new drugs work, it seems, by increasing bloodflow to the brain; others by acting more directly on central nervous tissue. The potential for abuse is enormous.

Every pharmaceutical manufacturer knows there is no such thing as a safe drug. The in-

terfering nature of the chemical concerned means that it will ihevitably cause some sideeffects, whose incidence will increase the more widely the drug is used.

Regaine is no wonder drug: Upjohn claims useful results for only a third of men suffering from baldness. But many more than a third of America’s 50 million baldies (plus millions abroad) will try the product to see if it works for them.

The F.D.A. is under pressure to hurry Regaine’s approval through, if only to get the drug off the black market. The intention is to sell Regaine as a prescription drug, to be monitored and recommended by doctors.

That may sound like a wise precaution. It is not. It means that the product will not have to meet the far stricter safety standards demanded of preparations that can be bought over the counter.

If Regaine and other “lifeenhancers” have to be approved, they should be sold for what functionally they are: cosmetics. And, as powerful drugs, they should meet the more stringent tests set for over-the-counter medicines.

Copyright — The Economist.