Babies display “Werewolf syndrome” after getting anti-baldness drug by mistake | Hacker News Reader

Babies display “Werewolf syndrome” after getting anti-baldness drug by mistake

nytimes.com

53 pointsbookofjoe31 comments

Wow, I wasn't aware that Minoxidil (Rogaine) works THIS well. Though it was all marketing gimmicks!

That how it was originally discovered. During the clinical trials for minoxidil, the patients started to grow lots of new hair.

What was the original purpose they were testing it for?

Hypertension, it's in the article.

It seems it's a vasodilator

It was originally used as a vasodilator to treat hypertension:

> When Upjohn received permission from the FDA to test the new drug as medicine for hypertension they approached Charles A. Chidsey MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He conducted two studies, the second study showing unexpected hair growth. Puzzled by this side-effect, Chidsey consulted Guinter Kahn and discussed the possibility of using minoxidil for treating hair loss.

> In August 1988, the FDA finally approved the drug for treating baldness in men under the trade name "Rogaine" (FDA rejected Upjohn's first choice, Regain, as misleading). The agency concluded that although "the product will not work for everyone", 39% of the men studied had "moderate to dense hair growth on the crown of the head".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoxidil#Hair_growth

We should just be researching visodilators. Minoxidil and sildenafil are sideeffects that appeal to male vanity and both came from research on visodilators.

More products that cater to the male vanity is a very good way to fix some of the gender judgment issues (i.e. women are judged based on their aesthetics - now we can enforce the same judgmental standards on men!).

Vasodilators aren't directly connected to hair growth. It's just a side effect of minoxidil.

I don't see what's wrong with wanting hair or looking attractive either. And countless generations of people before me felt the same way and I hope the killjoys don't ruin it in the future, but I'm not worried they've been pushing these narratives forever and not getting anywhere. Nice clothes and keeping bodies in good shape are great for self-expression and for health. They make the world a far more aesthetically pleasing place which we all benefit from.

Just like how plants and lighting effect our moods for the better. It also gives people self-confidence by presenting the best version of themselves.

You see body manipulation and makeup in plenty of "untouched" tribal and an appreciation for the external human aesthetic throughout historical cultures too. It's just a basic human trait. Like most things it's not something manufactured in secret by men in dark-suits who run the world. Although I'm sure this idea would have been very popular in academia in the 1970s when they tried to pigeonhole everything they didn't like about the world as victims of the male ego.

Fortunately we've largely moved on from that and the 'female revolution' they predicted was for naught. Because their targets were hardly the only driver, the vindictive nature of the ideology turned people off, and the alternatives were no fun.

> I don't see what's wrong with wanting hair or looking attractive either.

Neither do I. My point was made in earnest. Women are judged negatively for dressing up and actually making an effort in looking attractive. Men aren't judged negatively.

If we start selling makeup for men and encourage a society to use it, it will equalize the notion of "vanity" - using economics and generating desired behaviour in form of externalities is a favourite armchair hobby of mine.

There's enough pressure on men socially, I don't see how that helps anyone besides being vindictive.

These are psychological problems not cultural. It's not a problem for the vast majority of people, otherwise they would have done something about it.

People aren't just empty vessels moving around aimlessly until some greater power pushes them in some direction.

I want to dry this drug.

Wonder if topical use is better or oral.

Depends on the molecule sizes if it can be absorbed topically.

Been using it for a decade and I had no idea it was sold sold in oral form. It's only solid topically over the counter.

I'd imagine that's to avoid this problem, where hair grows everywhere, rather than the specific place you want it to grow.

It seems oral one for hairloss is less proven than topical application.

And people take very low dose of this drug to treat hairloss.

But it has very high possiblity of experiencing side effects

So when balding men take it, do they get hairier everywhere (sans face) or just their head? I'd rather go bald than end up with a shad rug on my chest and back and arms, etc.

They don’t take it.

Edit: In case it’s not clear, it’s applied on the skin. (It can be also taken orally for other indications, but that affects balding and non-balding men alike.)

Yes, at least in some cases. (Including the face.) Increased hair growth in other areas is a common side effect. Major hair growth elsewhere is pretty uncommon, though. People using topical minoxidil don’t usually end up looking like Austin Powers if they were generally hairless previously.

> Minoxidil is generally well tolerated, but common side effects include ... unwanted hair growth elsewhere on the body.

...

Minoxidil may cause hirsutism, although it is exceedingly rare and reversible by discontinuation of the drug.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoxidil

I use rogaine daily, you apply it on your scalp and it’s a foam. You need to wash your hand well because you can get hairier on your hand. As for the rest of the body I am extremely hairy already and I couldn’t possible notice a difference.

Well, nothing says great marketing gimmick quite like showing that a hair loss drug can turn babies into werewolfs.

> The laboratory was eventually shut down and the medicine taken off the market. Officials have opened an investigation.

Why would they need to take it off the market if it was just a mislabeling issue? Unless they mean that particular lab's medication was taken off the market.

> Unless they mean that particular lab's medication was taken off the market.

That’s obviously what happened. They had prepared the wrong product. It was not just sending a product to the wrong place, they had created something that no one had ever asked for.

Somebody else please tell me they thought this was a great superhero "origin story".

I don't think it was in the article: doesn't Spain have an FDA-equivalent? What root cause could this be ascribed to?

Imagine being a child and having this picture of you slewn across the web like this.

This article was light on details. I'm also not familiar with how compounding pharmacies work in Spain. But do prescription drugs come with a label describing properties such as shape, color and imprints? If they do, did the lab manage to mess that part up too?

This a compounding pharmacy. They are creating the final product. Likely they just bought bulk minoxidil powder.

For further info - they were likely compounding it into a liquid for infants/children (it's very difficult to get them to swallow pills) and compounded liquids have a much shorter shelf life than pills or prepackaged liquids, so we rely on distributed compounding pharmacies near customers. This has the obvious problem of guaranteeing quality and consistency across thousands of small operations.

> had erroneously distributed to pharmacists minoxidil, a drug that helps fight baldness, that was labeled omeprazole, a drug that treats acid reflux.

Are compounding pharmacies common in Spain? Isn't omerpazole just an OTC medicine that comes prepackaged?

It seems that the medications were being distributed in liquid form. Also, while it's OTC in the US (at least in pill form), a quick google search revealed that "a prescription may be required"

Okay maybe the liquid form is why they need the compounding pharmacy. Maybe its not readily available as a liquid.

Yup. It's either Prilosec (brand) or generic Omeprazole here in the US. More expensive than, say Rantadine, but perhaps better for chronic acid reflux. Relatively cheap OTC.

I bet if this happened in the US, the doctors would have prescribed something else to counteract the hypertrichosis.

Stop taking the product would be enough

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