Evocutis boosted by interest in animal replacement technology

The company focuses on advanced laboratory and clinical evaluations of skin care products for the health and cosmetic markets, and has reported several direct sales of its LabSkin living skin equivalent.

Animal replacement technology, LabSkin, emulates living skin with both dermal and epidermal layers. The epidermal layer is differentiated, which provides a dry, air-exposed surface to test all aspects of skin microbiology, according to Evocutis.

Contracts​

According to Evocutis, the contracts are all with well-known global consumer companies, and are expected to be delivered over a two to six month period.

"I am delighted that the uptake of LabSkin is increasing and that our clients - all of which are household names - are seeing a clear benefit over alternative skin models available either commercially or in house,”​ says Gwyn Humphreys, CEO of Evocutis.

“This is very positive in terms of future uptake of LabSkin and we are particularly pleased to see that our clients are using LabSkin successfully in their own laboratories. This validates our strategy of selling the product directly, as well as continuing to provide a full service offering to clients who require it.”​

Range​

The contracts cover a variety of technology areas including the use of LabSkin to evaluate product interactions, microbiological evaluation of products on skin and prebiotic evaluation of products on skin microflora.

The contract values range from £9,000 for early exploratory research to £88,000 for larger scale product development analysis, and include early direct sales of LabSkin; which will be used to assess cosmetics across the globe.

"The significant combined contract value means that Evocutis is on course to meet management expectations and strengthens the Company's position in its ongoing search for a strategic partner,"​ adds Humphreys.

Step forward​

Labskin has been heralded as a step forward in animal replacement as its behaviour is closer to that of normal human skin than found in other published studies on skin equivalent models; a problem plaguing the cosmetics industry.

Last year Evocutis was accepted as a member of the In Vitro Testing Industrial Platform (IVTIP) lowing it to further its work in laboratory and clinical evaluations of skin care products.

The company were accepted as a member following a presentation of its Labskin, with IVTIP recognizing that the technology could significantly contribute to its mission to ‘identify, develop and validate suitable in vitro laboratory alternatives to animal testing.’