Scots and Nordic scientists set to explore sustainable skincare
30 January 2012
Scottish company Aquapharm has joined forces with Norwegian firm
Aqua Bio Technology (ABT) to create a new generation of sustainable
ingredients for the skincare market.
Together the companies hope to identify natural marine
ingredients that could replace the petroleum-based components used
extensively within the skincare market.
Scientists at Aquapharm believe marine microbes are the key to
finding the bio-active ingredients of the future, and have
developed specialist fermentation processes to source and produce
such extracts.
Now they will undertake a development programme in conjunction
with ABT, sharing their expertise in a bid to prove these extracts
can be produced with minimal environmental impact - and
successfully commercialised for the personal care market.
Jon Williams, VP Commercial, Aquapharm, said: "We have an ageing
population, and one that is more environmentally aware, and both
factors have led to increasing demand for personal care products
with proven scientific benefits. As such brand owners and
retailers in this sector are seeking out new sources of innovative,
naturally-derived, anti-ageing ingredients - and we believe we have
an answer.
"Our approach could lead to significant economic and
environmental benefits over existing petroleum-based ingredients,
as well as being cost-competitive.
"By working with ABT we plan to develop one or two possible
ingredients from sustainable sources, show our ability to up-scale
production, and will work together to commercialise them."
Arvid Lindberg, CEO of Aqua Bio Technology ASA, said: "The
collaboration with Aquapharm will enable ABT to tap into the
knowledge and lucrative pipeline that Aquapharm holds. Together
with ABT's technical know-how on product development and ability to
commercialise marine ingredients through its vast distributor
network around the world, this paves the way for a true win-win
collaboration. We are very excited about this opportunity, and also
of the fact that our two respective governments have encouraged
this cooperation by providing initial funding to get the products
in question quickly onto the market. Innovation Norway has as such
provided a grant on their end of approximately 0,5 MNOK.
"By focusing on marine ingredients to the skincare industry that
combine both sustainability and efficacy, both macrotrends amongst
consumers, we are convinced that we will be able to commercialize
on this newly established collaboration. Consumers demand more and
more highly effective skincare products, yet they expect and demand
innovation not to come at the expense of the environment and
sustainability. With Aquapharm we will innovate new marine based
ingredients to cover both, and these will fit nicely into the
product portfolio of our company".
Aquapharm's cutting-edge techniques have paved the way for the
culturing of microbes previously thought 'unculturable', allowing
its scientists to create an impressive bank of unique marine
bacteria and fungi which can be harnessed as a source of novel
functional ingredients.
According to the firm these could be used to create a diverse
range of 'next-generation' products including: anti-ageing
ingredients with anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties as
well as natural preservatives.
The diversity of this untapped resource has attracted interest
from academic and industrial partners across a range of sectors,
and paved the way for a range of other Aquapharm-led collaborative
projects.
These include publicised partnerships with Leatherhead Food
Research to discover and develop novel preservatives for use in
food and beverages; a link-up with Albany Molecular (AMRI) to
identify new anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory candidates; and
collaboration with Croda International plc to source marine-derived
ingredients for skin and hair-care products.
Aquapharm's most recent project - its development programme in
conjunction with ABT - has been partly supported by government
funding from the Technology Strategy Board.
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