UPDATE: So I went to two separate dermatologists in LA and one hair-transplant surgeon to get the skinny on this dutasteride business.
None of them would RX it to me, but not for any nefarious reasons. The following is information essentially repeated by all three doctors:
1. The phase III trials of dutasteride were halted by Glaxo because the product demonstrated no marked difference in affinity for follicular DHT receptors than that of finasteride. Meaning, it lowers type I and type II alpha-5 reductase levels, **BUT** for reasons not well understood, this had no difference in affinity to hair follicle DHT receptors from existing finasteride.
2. Being that Merck has made hundreds of billions of dollars off propecia, it would make sense that their chief rival, GlaxoSmithKline, would go to all ends to create a competing product. The fact that they ended up folding on the trial validates the results, that dutasteride does not stop follicular miniaturization better than finasteride.
(in fact, it was the opinion of all three doctors, that dutasteride worked LESS WELL than finasteride for male pattern baldness.)
3. The 3 doctors, all of whom were balding men on MPB treatment, concurred that the best, most effective and subsequently, ONLY treatment is propecia (or 1.25mg finasteride/day) combined with rogaine foam. All three likewise confirmed that there are no other shampoos, lasers or snake oil that provide any scientifically measurable results for hair loss.
*4. They mentioned a new drug that is out for growing eye-lashes. LATISSE was created for glaucoma, but scientists quickly realized it grew out eyelashes like you wouldn't believe. It's about $100/month right now for an eye-dropper sized bottle, but it is currently about to go into testing for scalp hair and represents the next side-effectless frontier of hair loss.
Hope this helps all guys who want to have hair.