Chinese TEDx event reveals “ageing population syndrome” concerns

With ageing and related diseases a prominent concern for Chinese and wider Asia-Pacific (APAC) consumers, Dr Y. James Kang delivered a talk on regenerative medicine, entitled "transforming disease-based medication to personalised health care"​.

Ageing population syndrome​

After discussing his health with his doctor and being told “to save money for future disease treatment”​, Dr Y. James Kang coined the term ‘ageing population syndrome’ as he explored disease-based medication.

As Chinese consumers focus on anti-ageing products that also have multifunctional benefits, the beauty and regenerative medicine market continues to merge to appeal to cosmetics shoppers that are curious about biotechnology influences in skin care products.

Regenerative medicine​

Taiwanese skin care and beauty franchise, Chlitina, revealed that it was teaming up with Tongji University to develop a regenerative medicine platform to use stem cell research​ to further develop the “high-end medical beauty sector dedicated to anti-ageing treatments”​. 

Following the medical beauty creator's announcement, Cosmetics Design Asia spoke with Ryan Chao, Greater China COO at Chlitina about the relationship between beauty and medicine, and how far the Chinese and global markets can expect new technology relating to stem cell research and skin tests to go.

Emphasising the potential for evolution within the medical beauty sector​, Chao stated: “Maybe sooner than we expect — we will witness tremendous changes in the way medicine addresses ageing and diseases, and this may well have enormous consequences on the beauty business.” ​

Personalised health care​

In his talk, Dr Y. James Kang states that personalised health care is the way forward for regenerative medicine. With customised beauty a key trend for cosmetics buyers in 2017​, personalised health care manufacturers may find it easier to reach the mainstream market, as this existing relationship already appeals to consumers’ purchasing decisions. 

Kang highlights how “instead of spending the rest of our lives in drug-keeping, living a quality-maintained healthy life is our ultimate goal”.​ In achieving this objective, it suggests that personalised health care contrasts disease-based medication.

As a result, “transforming disease-based medication to personalised health care”​ to revolutionise personal care solutions through improved stem cell research, is popular in the Chinese cosmetics market.

Stem cell research​

Regenerative medicine will involve integrated approaches including naturally-occurring stem cells that are stored in the human body. Although Kang states how “stem cells are recognised as the essence of personalised medicine”​, he goes on to say that these “have not been well recognised until now”​ and their “approved clinical applications are rare”​.

In the recent TEDx talk, Kang revealed that along with his team, he has developed a new method of using stem cells, called "Destination-Engaged Vector Evolving Lineage Organ Regeneration (​DEVELOR)"​.

DEVELOR works by maintaining the stemness of stem cells during culturing and proliferation procedures to deliver an adequate number of cells to the intended area. This, then, modifies the stem cell's behaviour by secreting regenerative signals.

Market research company, Euromonitor International, reveals that in China, beauty and personal care buyers opt for products that have specific functionalities along with premium-positioned and high-quality products. Therefore, anti-ageing in the luxury market may well continue to see a wave of influence from regenerative medicine developments.