A topical small-molecule inhibitor of the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier, not a peptide, developed by Pelage Pharmaceuticals for androgenetic alopecia. It is designed to shift hair-follicle stem cell metabolism toward re-entry into the anagen (growth) phase. It is in a combined Phase 2/3 trial and has no FDA approval.
For research purposes only. Not medical advice.
PP405 is not a peptide. It is a synthetic small molecule that its developer, Pelage Pharmaceuticals, describes as a topical inhibitor of the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC), the transporter that carries pyruvate into mitochondria. PeptideScouter catalogues it under Skin & Cosmetic as part of the category's hair-loss group, beside AHK-Cu and RU-58841.
Pelage's June 2025 release says it licensed PP405 and related topical small molecules from UCLA in 2018, and its program page lists the UCLA group's hair-cycle papers among its selected publications.
In 2017 Flores and colleagues at UCLA, including Heather Christofk and William Lowry, reported that mouse hair follicle stem cells rely on glycolysis and produce more lactate than other cells in the epidermis (Nature Cell Biology). Deleting lactate dehydrogenase in those cells prevented their activation, while deleting the carrier subunit Mpc1 accelerated their activation and the hair cycle. Applied to the skin of mice in the resting phase, the established MPC inhibitor UK-5099 accelerated entry into the growth phase in as few as 6 to 9 days, with minor hyperproliferation of the surrounding epidermis.
A 2021 follow-up by Flores, Lowry and colleagues (Experimental Dermatology) found that blocking pyruvate entry into mitochondria accelerated the hair cycle in mouse models where cycling had stalled because of age, repeated chemotherapy or stress. Treated mice formed histologically normal follicles within 30 to 40 days, without overt signs of toxicity.
The same year Liu, Michael Jung, Christofk, Lowry and colleagues reported analogues of UK-5099 built as MPC inhibitors (Journal of Medicinal Chemistry). Analogues carrying a 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)benzyl group were much more active than UK-5099 at raising cellular lactate production, a 7-azaindole analogue also inhibited the carrier, and more than ten analogues promoted hair growth when applied to shaved mice. All three are mouse and cell studies.
In March 2024 Pelage presented data at the American Academy of Dermatology meeting from human facelift skin, in which a single topical application raised lactate dehydrogenase activity in follicle stem cells within 24 hours. The same release reported a Phase 1 study, concluded in January 2024, in which the proliferation marker Ki67 rose significantly in the hair follicles of people with androgenetic alopecia after seven days of treatment, compared with baseline.
The Phase 2a trial (NCT06393452) randomized 78 adults with androgenetic alopecia, 68 men and 10 women, to PP405 or a vehicle gel for four weeks, with follow-up to week 12. Its registered primary endpoints were safety measures, its secondary endpoint was plasma pharmacokinetics, and the record lists no efficacy outcome. The posted results show at least one treatment-emergent adverse event in 22 of 51 participants on PP405 and 10 of 27 on vehicle, one serious adverse event (a fracture) in the vehicle group, and a mean plasma PP405 concentration of 0 ng/mL at every sampled visit.
Hair growth was an exploratory endpoint. Pelage's release of June 17, 2025 reported that among men with a higher degree of hair loss, 31% of those on PP405 had more than a 20% increase in hair density at week eight, four weeks after treatment ended, against 0% on placebo. That figure comes from a subgroup whose size the release does not give.
The Phase 2/3 AWAKEN trial (NCT07819435) is randomized, double-blind and vehicle-controlled in men aged 18 to 55, with an estimated enrollment of 600. Its primary endpoint is the change in non-vellus target area hair count at the vertex at week 24, within a 52-week study. ClinicalTrials.gov lists it as recruiting, with a start date of September 21, 2026 (checked October 22, 2026).
The WHO entry gives suvomipic the formula C20H11F6N3O2 and CAS number 2260696-63-5: a 7-azaindole core carrying a 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)benzyl group and a 2-cyanoacrylic acid. It names no developer or code. The IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology lists PP405 as a synonym of suvomipic, and the same structure appears as a worked example in a University of California patent application on compounds to promote hair growth (WO2021127482, published 2021).
PP405 has no FDA approval. Drugs@FDA returns no application under PP405 or suvomipic (checked October 22, 2026), so it is not a component of any FDA-approved drug.
It is also absent from FDA's compounding nomination lists. Neither the 503A nominations list (versions of September 27, 2024 and May 14, 2026) nor the 503B list names it, it appears on neither the April nor the October 2026 version of FDA's Category 2 page, and it is absent from the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee's 2024 minutes, its July 2026 agenda and its next-meeting substance list. Absent from those lists, it sits outside the Category 2 and advisory-committee process that governs many compounded peptides.
No. PP405 is a synthetic small molecule that its developer, Pelage Pharmaceuticals, describes as a topical inhibitor of the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier. PeptideScouter catalogues it under Skin and Cosmetic with the category's other hair-loss compounds, AHK-Cu and RU-58841, of which only AHK-Cu is a peptide.
The mitochondrial pyruvate carrier moves pyruvate into mitochondria. In mouse studies published by UCLA researchers in 2017, deleting lactate dehydrogenase in hair follicle stem cells prevented their activation, deleting the carrier accelerated their activation and the hair cycle, and a topical carrier inhibitor, UK-5099, pushed resting follicles into the growth phase. Pelage describes PP405 as a topical inhibitor of the same carrier. Those mechanism results come from mice.
The Phase 2a trial, NCT06393452, randomized 78 adults with androgenetic alopecia to PP405 or a vehicle gel for four weeks with follow-up to week 12, and its registered endpoints were safety and blood levels. The posted results show treatment-emergent adverse events in 22 of 51 participants on PP405 and 10 of 27 on vehicle, and a mean plasma PP405 concentration of 0 ng/mL at every sampled visit. Pelage's June 2025 release added an exploratory subgroup result: among men with a higher degree of hair loss, 31% on PP405 had more than a 20% increase in hair density at week eight, against 0% on placebo.
No. Drugs@FDA returns no application under PP405 or its proposed international nonproprietary name, suvomipic, as of October 22, 2026. PP405 is investigational, and Pelage's Phase 2/3 AWAKEN trial, NCT07819435, was recruiting adult men with androgenetic alopecia as of that date.
PP405's CAS Registry Number is 2260696-63-5. It is also sold as PP-405, PP405 (JXL-069).
