Key points

  • Wall Street's next consumer-health trade after weight-loss drugs is baldness. Veradermics (MANE) has risen more than 500% from its $17 IPO price in February 2026, and Absci (ABSI) has more than doubled this year, Bloomberg reported on August 29th.
  • Pattern hair loss affects about 50 million men and 30 million women in the U.S., and no new drug has been approved for it since the late 1990s. Today's options are topical minoxidil, the ingredient in Rogaine, and finasteride.
  • The exuberance has not reached the insiders. Form 4 filings reviewed by InsiderBuying.com show Veradermics insiders sold about $103 million of stock in August 2026 and bought none on the open market.

Drugmakers found a lucrative answer to obesity, and their shareholders were rewarded for it. Eli Lilly (LLY) crossed a $1 trillion market value and Novo Nordisk (NVO) was briefly the most valuable company in Europe. Investors now want the same arc from a purely cosmetic problem.

Who is in the race

Veradermics announced positive results in April 2026 for its lead candidate, a tablet form of minoxidil, in male-pattern hair loss, and reported promising mid-stage data in women in July. If approved, it would be the first pill for female-pattern hair loss. Absci is developing ABS-201, an AI-designed injection for pattern hair loss, and expects interim data in the second half of 2026.

The company closest to market may be Switzerland's Cosmo, whose topical clascoterone blocks the hormone that drives male-pattern loss at the follicle. Cosmo calls it the "single biggest opportunity" in its portfolio and plans to file with the FDA in the first quarter of 2027. Jefferies estimates the therapy could reach $3 billion in global sales if the company finds a commercial partner, and analysts tracked by Bloomberg are universally bullish on both Cosmo and Veradermics.

That was Needham analyst Gil Blum, quoted by Bloomberg. Jefferies analyst Roger Song said the market "definitely can accommodate multiple drugs" because many patients already use more than one treatment. OrbiMed portfolio manager Geoff Hsu said a safe and effective drug would "unlock a significant addressable market."

Why it may not be another GLP-1

Going bald is not a health crisis. GLP-1 drugs won insurance coverage as obesity treatments while also pulling in cosmetic demand, and hair-loss drugs are likely to stay a cash-pay expense. Drug development is also high risk, and before GLP-1s a generation of obesity drugs failed to become blockbusters. Blum called Absci "a zero or hero story."

What the stocks have done since

Veradermics closed at $106.75 on September 18th, 2026, up 183% since its first close of $37.75 on February 4th but below its July 2nd high of $129.74. Absci closed at $9.65, up 259% in one year, against a March 12th low of $2.30 and a July 2nd high of $11.62.

What the insiders did

Form 4 filings reviewed by InsiderBuying.com show heavy selling at Veradermics during the run. Director Montanova Capital sold 750,000 shares at $107.25 on August 19th, 2026, for $80.4 million. Chief executive Reid Waldman sold 67,500 shares for $7.28 million and chief technical officer Timothy Durso sold 43,500 shares for $4.69 million, both on August 17th, after director John Childs sold 100,000 shares for $10.7 million on August 12th.

There was no open-market purchase by any Veradermics insider in that period, and Absci's only filing since August is a tax-withholding disposal by its finance chief. Full records are on the Veradermics and Absci pages, and Insider Access members track real-time insider activity across the hair-loss and weight-loss drug stocks.

Informational only, not investment advice.