PL Thomas enters into joint venture with natural extracts company
The US company, which supplies both topical and ingestible ingredients for cosmetics products as well as dietary supplements, has entered into a collaboration with Spanish natural extracts manufacturer Polifenoles Natural.
According to Dr Vladimir Badmaev, who has been appointed the director of scientific and medical affairs at both PL Thomas and Polifenoles, a joint venture such as this represents the future of the industry.
“The future of our industry is based upon well standardized and well researched products. And it comes in that order. There is no point in doing any research on a product which you cannot guarantee will remain the same every time,” he told CosmeticsDesign.
Standardization comes first
There needs to be security on the standardization side of the products in order to provide good science and good products, he added.
Badmaev’s role will be to develop the science behind the products and the IP in such a way to help bring them to market. Or, in the words of Badmaev: “To facilitate the marriage between the two companies.”
According to Badmaev the industry suffers from many ‘me too’ products that tend to copy what is already on the market. The collaboration between the PL Thomas and Polifenoles will attempt to address areas that are not usually tackled in the industry.
Badmaev gave fibroblasts as an example of a current focus for the companies in the cosmetics arena.
Fibroblasts are multitasking cells located in the dermis. They play a role in maintaining healthy skin, in the products of collagen and elastin and nourishing the hair follicle, he said.
“We are developing specialized products, either topical or ingestible to target the multiple functions of the fibroblast,” he said.
Product offerings from the co-operation between the two companies will cover both ingestible and topical cosmetics ingredients, as well as nutraceutical ingredients and dietary supplements.
