The pipeline
While many of us may associate Galderma with dermal filler and botulinum toxin products, this only accounts for around 20% of what the company does. In fact, the company’s heritage lies in ‘traditional’ dermatology offerings such as Epiduo, an antibiotic-free retinoid to treat three out of the four causes of acne, and Oracea (Efracea in the UK), which is an anti-inflammatory to treat the papules and pustules of rosacea.
One of the newest products that has been gaining a lot of press coverage in recent months, is Mirvaso, which is currently being launched in the US (FDA approved in August 2013) and received approval in the EU on 25 February. Mirvaso is a topical gel to treat moderate to severe facial erythema of rosacea.
And it doesn’t stop there, as Mr Antunes explained: ‘We have a very bright pipeline of products in R&D, with a dozen new chemical entities at phases 2–3, 6500 patent applications filed since our creation, and 57 new patents registered in 2012. We have five R&D centres and I plan to create another larger one in the US.’
For Galderma, it seems that it is important to continue to meet the needs of skin conditions and diseases, while promoting an holistic approach to aesthetic treatments in particular.
‘I have a very strong opinion that you cannot simply treat the patient with a soft tissue filler and botulinum toxin; you need an holistic approach. Therefore, we aim to provide a full service that meets the patient’s needs.’
Nestlé Skin Health
Last month it was announced that Nestlé would acquire L’Oreal’s 50% stake in Galderma, resulting in the creation of Nestlé Skin Health — a global leader focused on meeting the world’s increasing skin health needs, with a scientifically-proven broad range of innovative products, and led by Humberto Antunes.
‘This new company will be able to reach through a broad spectrum of channels and data to meet the skin health needs of people around the world,’ he explained. ‘Galderma is the founding base, the banner for medical solutions and the brand we will be using for this. And we will be able to do it bigger, faster and in more territories around the world.’
Essentially, Galderma will add ‘muscle power’ to leverage its heritage and reach more patients, providing better solutions.
‘At any point in time we estimate that there are 1.4 billion people who need a medical solution for their skin,’ said Mr Antunes. ‘We are touching a small fragment of that with Galderma. But Nestlé is going to give us the muscle power to reach a bigger portion of that and work more closely with healthcare providers.’
The future’s bright
The future certainly looks bright for Galderma, with its strong product pipeline and new venture with Nestlé Skin Health. As Mr Antunes explains, the aesthetic market is still very young and incipient — and he believes that while it has grown fast, there is still much more room to grow and provide higher efficacy, scalable solutions, and improved services. And with regard to future trends, the demographics we have should be the most important element in its prediction: ‘The number of people over 60 years of age is expected to be 1 billion in 2020. With that comes a series of needs — of lipoatrophy, wrinkles, frailty, dryness, non-melanoma skin cancers — that we will have to address.’
However, Mr Antunes also predicts that technology development will continue to excel and converge in order to meet those anticipated needs — something that is exciting for all those involved in aesthetic medicine, skincare and dermatology.
