Zhejiang Eserch：Synthetic Biology Represents Faster Innovation

Recently, “corporate survival” has become a hot topic. The beauty industry has also encountered various challenges this year, but the competition of efficacy cosmetics is still fierce. CHAILEEDO invited Xing Hui, CEO of Zhejiang Eserch Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd., to share with us the trends in Chinese cosmetics.

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CHAILEEDO: From your perspective, what is the biggest trend in the cosmetics industry next year?

Xing: Higher quality, more technology and more segmentation.

(1) Since 2021, China has intensively issued policies and regulations, made clear regulations on children’s cosmetics, cosmetic efficacy, cosmetic labels, cosmetic ingredients and safety evaluation, and provided specific rectification plans for non-compliant behaviors. The supervision of the cosmetics industry was strengthened, and the development is gradually normalized.

The promulgation of relevant policies and regulations has accelerated the process of eliminating inferior enterprises, forced cosmetics enterprises to improve their own construction, further improved powerful cosmetics enterprises, and promoted the high-quality development of the cosmetics industry.

(2) The trend of skincare with science and technology is developing increasingly. Now, consumers pay more attention to the quality of products, the safety of product formulations and the research and development of technology. The focus has gradually changed from impulsive consumption due to demand outbreaks to rational consumption that comprehensively considers products before placing orders. Consumers are more willing to pay for cost-effective products with good ingredients. In this era, focusing on skincare ingredients and technology research and development to bring consumers a better product experience will become the biggest trend in the industry.

(3) In today’s increasingly competitive industry, it is more promising to focus on market segments. Online channel traffic is getting more and more expensive, while offline stores are suffering from the decline in consumption and the impact of the pandemic. Skincare companies, especially new brands, should think highly of market segmentation based on a specific population, usage scenarios, and body parts, realizing the breakthrough from market segments with intensive cultivation.

CHAILEEDO: What are the trends of new ingredients in the cosmetics industry next year?

Xing: First, in terms of efficacy, the competition of efficacy skincare remains popular, and active ingredients largely determine the efficacy of products. With the tightening of industry regulation, consumers’ focus on skincare products has advanced to product functions, concentrations, activities, and formulations. The entire development of new ingredients will be carried out to meet these market demands.

Now, the persistent high demands include moisturizing, and anti-oxidation/anti-aging, while the rapidly increasing demands include whitening and freckle removal, soothing and repairing, etc. For sun protection efficacy, new safety and efficacy sunscreen ingredients are in urgent need of development in the market.

Second, in terms of sources, the development trend of new ingredients is “natural and sustainable”. From a policy perspective, the relevant regulations on cosmetics clearly encourage and support the use of modern science and technology, combined with our country’s traditional advantageous projects and characteristic plant resources to research and develop cosmetics. In addition, the awakening of public awareness of environmental protection also makes “natural”, “safe” and “efficient” cosmetics more popular.

At present, many brands are promoting the concept of “sustainable” and “environmental-friendly” by emphasizing that no harmful substances or risky ingredients are added. Manufacturers of industry-related ingredients are committed to developing new ingredients that can combine science with nature to ensure that the natural or naturally extracted ingredients of products can not only work but will not impair human health and the environment. Due to the relatively high manufacturing difficulty and high technical barriers, ingredients without preservatives are also the key point of development.

Third, in terms of technology, more and more biomedical technologies have been applied to the development of cosmetic ingredients. Relying on the development of modern biotechnology such as bioengineering and genetic engineering, the technological content in cosmetic ingredients has been qualitatively enhanced. For example, active polypeptide ingredients naturally exist in human skin, with high safety performance, as characterized by low concentration and high activity. With the support of biological fermentation technology and synthetic biology technology, peptides and active protein components will become an important development direction in the future.

Moreover, the development of active ingredients will further study the endogenous skin mechanism, such as skin epigenetics, genomics, etc., rather than the skin structure.

CHAILEEDO: Will synthetic biology replace animal and plant extracts?

Xing: Now, the production technologies of ingredients mainly include four types: animal and plant extracts, chemical synthesis, biological fermentation, and synthetic biology.

Natural plant extracts become a fever under the clean beauty trend. At present, consumers are more considerate of green health and life quality, and the clean beauty that claims to be natural, safe, and effective begins to win consumers over.

Clean beauty, broadly speaking, is to use pure, safe ingredients and sustainable manufacturing processes to produce safer and more environmental-friendly products. With the pursuit of a natural, hypoallergenic and green formula, it aims to reduce the burden on the skin during use. Some leading international ingredients companies take natural plant extraction technology as one of their core competencies. For example, Crodarom, the sub-brand of Croda, is dedicated to plant extracts through self-developed microwave extraction and ultrasonic-assisted extraction technologies, which can subdivide all combination parameters to select more effective plant extraction technology, reduce environmental pollution, and achieve personalized customization. In a certain period, natural animal and plant extracts are still one of the important sources of cosmetic ingredients.

Synthetic biology is the frontier of the new life sciences and the future direction of production technology. In short, the goal of synthetic biology is to program DNA to instruct an organism to respond according to designed specifications to produce the substances we need. The types of cosmetic ingredients that can be developed at present include natural products, such as astaxanthin, resveratrol, glycosides, squalene, etc.

With the breakthrough of the underlying technology of synthetic biology and the continuous application of many technologies such as gene editing and enzyme-directed evolution, we can quickly realize the manufacturing of known cosmetic ingredients and greatly shorten the development cycle of new cosmetic ingredients. More interestingly, synthetic biology can break the restrictions and produce some active ingredients (such as recombinant collagen, etc.) derived from scarce animals and plants on a large scale, and at the same time continuously produce many new ingredients and new molecules that cannot be synthesized by traditional chemistry.

Since the ingredients of synthetic biotechnology are usually renewable resources such as starch and cellulose, it can not only further reduce costs but also effectively solve the high energy consumption and high pollution of chemical production. The production process becomes greener, safer and more environmental-friendly, obtaining high economic output at smaller environmental costs, which is more in line with the national development plan of “emission peak and carbon neutrality”.

Synthetic biology represents faster innovation, which means faster product iteration, stronger growth potential and more market space for imaginative products, and it will gradually replace traditional ingredients production methods in the foreseeable future.