With this collaboration the two companies hope to identify natural marine ingredients that could replace the petroleum-based components used extensively within the skin care market.
Scientists at the Scottish firm Aquapharm have been working with marine microbes for a number of years and have developed specialist fermentation processes to source and produce bio-active ingredients.
Knowledge sharing
With this collaboration the two companies will be able to share 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, vice president 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.”
Arvid Lindberg, CEO of Aqua Bio Technology, commented: "The collaboration with Aquapharm will enable ABT to tap into the knowledge and lucrative pipeline that Aquapharm holds.”
Following the trends
"By focusing on marine ingredients to the skin care 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.”
Lindberg believes consumers demand more highly effective skin care 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" he added.
The development of these novel functional ingredients could be used to create a diverse range of next generation products including anti-ageing ingredients with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties as well as natural preservatives.
This is just the latest step into the marine microbe world for Aquapharm, who joined forces with Croda International to source marine-derived ingredients for skin and hair care products.