Hair-Loss Drugs' Big Growth in China

When Shi Yang was studying and working in France several years ago, most of his colleagues were bald—which made his own thinning pate more tolerable. But since Shi’s return to China in 2011, the 26-year-old Shanghai engineer’s hair loss has become an issue. “You will definitely stick out more back in China,” explains the bespectacled engineer, who says he has a better chance of landing a girlfriend if he has a thick thatch of hair. That’s why after raw-ginger scalp rubs and walnut snacks failed to counter his receding hairline, Shi says he’s ready to give Western drugs a try.

Treatments such as Merck’s Propecia and Johnson & Johnson’s Rogaine are gaining ground in China, where a full head of hair is a sign of health and virility. Sales of Western hair-loss treatments, most of which contain Rogaine’s active ingredient, minoxidil, jumped 90 percent to 100.7 million yuan ($16.4 million) in the five years through 2012, according to researcher Euromonitor International. That’s almost double the growth rate of China’s broader 33.6 billion yuan market for hair-care products. Hair-loss drug sales are still small because baldness is only now being seen as a problem requiring pharmaceutical help, and Western companies have only recently begun to seize on the concern.