Proteus says that the proceeds of the investment will be used to accelerate its growth of both the Proteus PSI and PCAS Biosolution businesses, which, as well as the cosmetics industry, also serve the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries.
Although Proteus did not reveal how much the investment represented, a spokesperson for the company told CosmeticsDesign-Europe that it would enable increased expenditure for the research and development, production and marketing of its formulations and services.
The Proteus PSI (Proteus Services for Industry) concentrates on the development of protein manufacturing and engineering solutions for a wide variety of companies and industries, including cosmetics.
Increasingly proteins are playing an important part in the development of targeted skin care products, namely anti-ageing products, as proteins such as collagen can be engineered and harboured to help fight the skin ageing process.
The PCAS Biosolution is a joint 50/50 venture between Proteus and PCAS that aims to develop new manufacturing methods for pharmaceutical intermediates and active compounds.
This process centres on chemo-biocatalytic processes developed by PCAS to access complex pharmaceutical intermediates while reducing the number of steps required during the manufacturing process, in turn lowering production costs and waste.
This bio-biocatalytic process was patented and launched in the US at the end of 2005, following its launch in the European market.
"For specific cosmetic and personal care applications it means that chemical-based ingredients can be developed using a biocatalyst to reduce the number of steps to process it," said Jean-Marie Sonet, Proteus spokesperson.
"As the process is mild it avoids smells and other undesirable side affects, which means that harsh chemicals such as bleach can be avoided. And because the process is so much simpler it also makes it cheaper," added Sonet.
The company has subsequently implemented the technology for a number of major cosmetic ingredients manufacturers, allowing them to produce an ingredient with a lower solubility, thus using less solvent.
Likewise, the company has also collaborated with ingredients company Degussa to develop a thermostable esterase biocatalyst to provide new applications for poorly soluble ingredients used in cosmetic applications.
Esterases represent one of the most important classes of industrial biocatalysts due to their ability to catalyse reactions in organic media, making them exceptionally useful for cosmetic applications where the controlled reaction of ingredients is of the utmost important in order to avoid timely and expensive errors.
