The below statement is from Dr. Park who runs minoxidilsolutions. He posted this on another website the other day.
All,
This is Dr. Park, with Minoxidil Solutions. As you know, Dr. Lee rarely posted on forums and I do not plan to do so routinely myself, but I feel an obligation to do so and will likely share the same message on other sites as seems appropriate.
Dr. Lee spent many years perfecting his formulas and I simply won't stand for his hard work to go to waste because people make subjective assessments of these products without any idea how they are made. Over the past 5-6 months since we began offering the Xandrox line, I have gained a new appreciation for how unreliable internet forums are as a source of information. Anybody, with any motives, can begin posting as facts things are either aren't true or are their subjective opinion.
I will take a minute to try to shed some light on the topic. In the end, though, there is nothing we can do to convince people to use these products and frankly my approach is similar to that which Dr. Lee had for many years. It is not my job to convince you to use these products. As someone with male pattern baldness, I will do my best through online consultations and continued compounding of the products, to offer what solutions I can for others to treat their male pattern baldness and that is the extent of what I can do. I, and many of our staff, use these products to treat our own male pattern baldness and thus will compound them for many years to come. It would be a great waste of many years of work if the batches got smaller due to internet falsehoods, though, and that is why I am posting.
There is an inherent variability in each batch of product we make. You have probably realized that there are not a lot of people offering 15% minoxidil solutions out there and there is a reason for this. Its because it is impossible to get that amount of minoxidil soluble in solution unless it is compounded by hand. The process requires heat at specific intervals and levels along with gradual addition of ingredients as the solubility of the batch is monitored. These requirements make it such that the process simply can't be automated and thus variability between batches is intrinsic. Depending on the humidity and temperature in the lab each day, we have to adjust how we approach the process. It has always been this way and the batches in southern California had their own characteristics that apparently people have decided are the only characteristics that these products can have. Our new location, however, provides a different climate and humidity and thus is going to result in a some slightly different subjective qualities to each batch. There is no way to automate this and it is remarkably time intensive. In fact, I would be suspicious of companies that offer 15% solutions that are identical batch to batch for this very reason. It took a lot of years and a lot of work in the lab for Dr. Lee to perfect this process. So our products in this new location having slightly different subjective qualities is not surprising. Even at Regrowth, we got many emails concerned about the variability between product batches. The most common concern was regarding color with people who got colorless solutions concerned that they didn't have a yellow to reddish tint and people who got yellow to reddish solutions concerned that they weren't colorless. This was in the stable compounding environment in southern California. Our new location, with seasonal variability in light, humidity and temperature is going to reliably produce variability in batches. Another variable is the length of storage. With plenty of storage space in southern California, we could make much larger batches that could be stored for several weeks prior to shipment. Our new location with limited storage, requires smaller batches with shorter storage times.
The bottom line is that differences between the products now and when they were produced in southern California are to be expected. I would be extremely surprised if there weren't any. Each batch is ALWAYS produced with the exact concentrations and ingredients that are advertised on each product and the same concentrations and ingredients that have ALWAYS been in these products. Any subjective variations in the product are due to the above reasons. And NONE of these things affect the product's pharmacologic or clinical efficacy. I'm hopeful that as people get used to the characteristics of the batches being compounded now these concerns will dissipate. These products are as effective as they have always been and consistent use over several months will prove that.
The only physical characteristic of the solution that would cause me concern about its viability is if an ingredient had precipitated out of solution. In other words, if you find a solid precipitate of any kind in your solution you should absolutely email me or the general email support address through the website. This should not happen and if it did, your product would need to be replaced.
I do concur with some observations that I have read on the internet that the products do have more of an 'acetone' type smell than they used to. This is in part due to the issues I discussed above and in part due to the fact that we have had to change our alcohol vendor. But, again, this change in scent in no way affects that product's pharmacologic or clinical efficacy. All of our batches have three levels of quality control with three of us verifying the composition of each active and inactive ingredient.
Many of you probably know that during the weeks before Regrowth stopped compounding, their staff began referring patients to minoxidilsolutions.com. There is a reason for this. There is also a reason we are offering the Xandrox line with the same labeling and ingredients with Regrowth's full allowance.
We had to hire all new staff since the summer due to our new location, all of whom have had to be trained on the business and its operations. The first warehouse manager we hired I am told was severely underperforming on customer service issues including failing to answer phones reliably. This is unacceptable and thus he was let go two weeks ago. We have a new warehouse manager that seems to be doing well. There is no reason that any contact should go unanswered and if you have any issues with customer service, please contact me through the website as it will be corrected. I have been genuinely surprised at how hard it has been to get good staff that provides good customer service and I agree that it has been unacceptable to this point. It is frustrating for me as well and I hope they will be resolved soon.
I do not wish to spend time or gain a presence in internet chat forums so I will not be rechecking this thread to answer questions. I have a busy clinical practice that takes enough of my time. However, if you would like to contact me via the minoxidilsolutions.com website, I would be happy to answer your questions.
Dr. Park, MD
