Razor-maker hopes to stop women’s facial hair growth with prescription cream
In November 1999, Gillette Co., “the world’s largest hair removal company,” and pharmaceutical maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. announced that they have developed the first prescription cream to halt facial hair growth in women. The two companies report that controlled studies involving this new topical, called Vaniqa (Van-ih-KA), showed that it helps most women – without causing major side effects, and they hope to have U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance to market the product early this year. According to a Gillette spokesperson, Vaniqa works equally well with men, but while the male market would be much bigger, the companies want to prove themselves with women first. Vaniqa will be Gillette’s first prescription product. The price of Vaniqa has not yet been set. Like most lifestyle drugs, the cream will probably not be covered by insurance.
The cost will not bother Ingrid Reyes, 29, a chemist from New York City, who told an Associated Press reporter that she’d “be attracted to the convenience of a cream.” Reyes said she has had a dark hair growth above her lip and male-like sideburns since she was a teenager. “I tried waxing to remove the hair, but that dried out my skin. And I tried plucking it out, but the hair only grew back thicker.”
Reyes told the reporter that she had lately been receiving electrolysis, “which gets rid of hair permanently,” but multiple treatments were required and “at $75 each they are stretching my budget.” The press release said that doctors, too, had “recently started using lasers to kill hair follicles, but that is also expensive and can cause scarring.”
Gillette says Vaniqa is applied to the face like a moisturizer, twice a day, and “it works by blocking the enzyme that makes the hair follicle grow.” It starts working after a few weeks, and must be used regularly or hair growth will resume. Dr. Ken Washenik, a dermatologist at New York University who helped study the drug, said “It will be nice to give women something they do not have to take by mouth – and it’s certainly less painful than electrolysis.” The only side effect noticed in his research was a rash that appeared on some women, he said.
Until the new product has received FDA approval and the Vaniqa formula is revealed, consultants to the electrolysis industry can only guess what secret ingredients the cream contains – and how effective those ingredients might be for the treatment of unwanted hair. However, one authority (name withheld by request) contacted by Hair Route says the brief description of Vaniqa supplied by the manufacturer suggests that it may have evolved from research with androgen receptor blockers (e.g. spironolactone), or 5-alpha reductase inhibitors (e.g. finasteride). Past experiments with these types of drugs have not proved to be effective in skin, but lately there has been talk of newer, more effective generations of such hair growth inhibitors.
Gillette Co. developed Vaniqa and partnered with the New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb (which also makes Clairol beauty supplies) in 1996, to finish testing, handle regulatory reviews and assist in marketing. The product represents Bristol-Myers’s first foray into “lifestyle drugs” – an emerging category of medicine for the treatment of conditions such as baldness, hirsutism, obesity and impotence.
Vaniqa comes at an opportune time for Gillette. The Boston-based Company dominates the world’s market for men’s and women’s razors. But in October 1999, Gillette disclosed flat third quarter earnings due to weak sales – and warned that its performance would not improve soon.
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