Allergan Inc. has moved its
eyelash treatment into the second clinical stage of testing as a
therapy for baldness and expects to see data by the middle of next
year, Chief Executive Officer David Pyott said.
The product, Latisse, was approved in 2008 to aid in eyelash growth,
and generated $82 million last year for the Irvine, California-based
company. Allergan is currently testing Latisse for men and women
against placebo. U.S. regulators generally require three stages of
trials before approval.
The tests follow a business model Allergan successfully implemented
with Botox, its top-selling product with $1.42 billion in revenue
last year. Initially approved for therapeutic uses in 1989, Botox’s
wrinkle-smoothing properties were identified as a side effect. The
product was then cleared in 2002 as an injection to smooth frown
lines between the brows. Latisse is a version of Allergan’s glaucoma
drug Lumigan, which was found to stimulate lash growth as a side
effect of therapeutic treatment.
“The docs used to start laughing, because there are patients luckily
that only have glaucoma in one eye and so they’d come in and say,
‘Doc I’ve got these beautiful eyelashes over here, what should I
do?’” Pyott said today during an interview in New York. Now, for
baldness, “We know anecdotally it works. The question is, how well
does it work?”
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