Hamburg, July 18, 2018 – Beiersdorf
AG, Hamburg, Germany, and S-Biomedic NV, Beerse, Belgium, today announced that
they have entered into a cooperation to jointly drive the future of skin care
via research into skin microbiota. Accordingly,
Beiersdorf has taken an equity investment into S-Biomedic in the single digit
million euro range.
“Since 1882, Beiersdorf has been successfully building partnerships with
suppliers, universities, research
institutions, as well as individual inventors and innovators,” emphasized Ralph Gusko, Board Member for Consumer Brands at
Beiersdorf. “With our investment into S-Biomedic, we open up for cooperations
with start-up companies. These pioneers for future technologies will help us
deliver answers for unmet consumer needs.”
While the pivotal role of the resident microbiota has been well established
for the gut, skin microorganisms have largely been associated only with disease
or malodor. Since the advent of next generation sequencing technologies knowledge
about the delicate balance of the skin microbiota and its symbiotic effect on the skin’s metabolism is growing
exponentially. S-Biomedic has earned the position of being a frontrunner in
this field.
“Skin Care is on the verge of disruption and will hugely benefit from
the dramatic progress in life science research. Microbiome research is one of
the most dynamic fields, and we need to deeply look at it for innovative offers
for our consumers,” said Dr. May Shana’a, Senior Corporate Vice President of
R&D for Beiersdorf. “We are delighted to tap into Beiersdorf’s vast
experience in skin care to take our research to the next stage of
commercialization with maximum speed and efficiency,” said Veronika Oudova, CEO
of S-Biomedic.