Acrux technology used for skincare products

Drug delivery company Acrux is branching out into novel territory with its investee company Cosmeceutic Solutions, a US-based operation set up last year to develop skin care products for the global cosmetics industry based on the company's proprietary Across enhancers.

Acrux's Across enhancer is based on commonly used sunscreen ingredients, with transdermal penetration enhancer activities. The company is developing technology to use the enhancers to deliver hormone replacement therapy.

According to Cosmeceutic Solutions' CEO Carla Nugent, in Melbourne last week, the enhancers used by Acrux in its drug delivery systems can also be used to precisely deliver anti-ageing ingredients to different layers of the skin. Nugent, who dubs the cosmetic version of the transdermal enhancer InSkin, said the technology was broadly applicable to skin care products for anti-ageing, acne treatment, scalp care and even aromatherapy.

"One of the biggest opportunities is to target ingredient delivery and create a reservoir effect," Nugent said. "You can demonstrate ingredients are going to lodge in the appropriate places in the skin instead of depositing on the surface."

As far as opportunities go, skin care is one of the biggest markets in the global cosmetics industry. Nugent said the anti-ageing skin care products market in the US alone (which represents 40 per cent of the global market) was worth around $US1.8-2 billion annually. A recent Morgan Stanley report commented that the skin care market was one of the best investments to make, as it was virtually recession-proof.

According to Nugent, Cosmeceutic Solutions plans to out-licence the technology to the cosmetic industry, preferably to exclusive partners who can distribute the technology through a number of channels, including the lucrative mass market and department store markets, as well as the door-to-door market and the medical specialty market targeted at dermatologists and plastic surgeons.

"We plan to have our first licensing agreement by the middle to end of 2003," Nugent said.

But the company is barely on the radar screen of the global cosmetics companies at this point, Nugent said, although they have had a positive reception so far.

The company also plans to develop its own product lines, with a variety of possible marketing and distribution channels, and plans to be on the market by the end of 2003 or beginning of 2004.

Nugent said Cosmeceutic Solutions planned to work closely with its partners, helping them to develop products using the company's proprietary patented multi-action complexes of ingredients, which contain blends of antioxidants and other compounds that can treat different layers of the skin.

"We consider transdermal delivery a breakthrough in technology. No one is doing this right now," Nugent explained. "We have a leg up on the mechanism for delivery."

Because Acrux's enhancers are generally recognised as safe, and have been around for 20 years, Nugent said minimal safety testing would be required for the new technology.

"We can program the technology to remain in the cosmetic range, that is within the skin, with no concern that the product will cross into the blood," she said. "In our case we have conducted proof of principle studies both in vitro and in vivo."

Nugent said the major cosmetic breakthroughs of the last decade, such as Retinol and Kinetin, had primarily come from the pharmaceutical industry. "There is a tremendous amount of science in cosmetics, and a lot of money to be made in it," she said. "Everyone is looking for the next, greatest silver bullet."