🔒A CT startup wants a better pill for hair loss — and just raised $150M to try it

Treatment for hair loss is a $9.5 billion industry. But it isn’t yet one that works for the majority of people. “You go through a laundry list of options. And anytime someone gives you a laundry list of options, it’s because there’s no clear one that works,” said Reid Waldman. An estimated 80 million Americans live with pattern hair loss, making the demand for effective treatment both enormous and largely unmet. Waldman has started a company that aims to change that. New Haven-based Veradermics, which Waldman co-founded with fellow dermatologist Tim Durso, hasn’t actually discovered a new drug — the company is aiming to optimize the delivery of an old one.

“Minoxidil is clearly a validated form,” Waldman said. “The only proven form of hair loss treatment in both males and females in its topical format, which is Rogaine.” Minoxidil was first approved as an oral treatment for severe hypertension. It’s a vasodilator that relaxes blood vessels. Applied to the scalp, it has been shown to regrow hair — likely by improving blood flow to follicles — but it requires consistent, long-term use and doesn’t work for everyone. Veradermics set out to make minoxidil work in pill form for hair loss — easier for patients to take and stick with, and capable of delivering the drug more effectively. They’ve developed a slow-release tablet, VDPHL01, designed to deliver a consistent and long-lasting exposure to the drug throughout the day. That promise has attracted serious interest from backers. This fall, Veradermics closed a $150 million oversubscribed Series C round to move VDPHL01 into Phase 3 clinical trials — one of the largest biotech financings in Connecticut this year. The company, which now has 20 employees, is actively recruiting 1,500 patients for the trials, two in men and one in women. Waldman said Phase 2 data gave the company strong confidence in VDPHL01’s potential to change the hair-loss treatment landscape. Veradermics reported findings showing visible, measurable hair regrowth within two months of treatment, he said.

A new backer

Waldman, who was recently named Entrepreneur of the Year by BioCT and law firm Shipman & Goodwin, went to medical school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, completing a six-year bachelor’s and medical degree program. He then moved to Connecticut to do his residency in dermatology at UConn, and went into private practice in Glastonbury. “While ​I ​was ​in ​Glastonbury, ​I ​developed ​the ​niche ​of ​treating ​hair ​loss ​for ​the ​group. ​And ​the ​interesting ​thing ​about ​treating ​hair ​loss ​is ​that ​a ​lot ​of ​dermatologists are ​reticent ​to ​do ​it,” he said. Waldman’s interest in developing a new treatment grew out of his clinical practice, where he saw patients’ need for an option that was consistent, faster and produced hair growth they could notice on their own. As he was contemplating the jump into a startup, Waldman participated in several programs for physician entrepreneurs. He was also inspired — and mentored — by a well-known name in Connecticut’s bioscience scene, Biohaven CEO Vlad Coric. “Truthfully, one of the greatest commercial biotech CEOs ever,” Waldman said of his mentor. “I feel like every week I learn something new from him. It has been that mentorship that gave us the confidence and the belief we can do this.” One of the company’s earliest investors was Connecticut Innovations, something Waldman says was validating for other potential backers, including trans-Atlantic biotech venture capital firm SR One, which led Veradermics’ $150 million Series C financing earlier this year. As part of the deal, SR One partner Katarina Pance joined Veradermics’ board. Pance said VDPHL01 represents one of the first oral hair-regrowth candidates designed to deliver consistent results without sacrificing safety. “We believe VDPHL01 represents the rare convergence of scientific innovation, favorable preliminary clinical data and potential commercial opportunity,” Pance said. It’s part of a wave of funding going into the sector, with several other biotechs focused on hair-loss treatment, including Pelage Pharmaceuticals, Stemson Therapeutics and RepliCel. As Phase 3 trials get underway, Veradermics said the next step will be to recruit a team to commercialize its treatment in anticipation of potential Food and Drug Administration approval. Waldman said he is inspired by the commercialization model of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, noting that as much as a quarter of sales in that market are paid for out of pocket. “We’ve seen that, in the modern era, people are willing to pay cash for products that result in meaningful benefit to them,” he said. “I think we’re going to see more of that across different areas in health care. I think that may end up being more cost-efficient and enabling better access for patients.”