HBA Leadership Panel to focus on importance of stem cells in anti-aging

Amongst the five panel members will be Kenneth Aldrich, who is Chairman and co-founder of International Stem Cell Corporation (ISC), a company that was launched to serve the medical sector, but is now branching out in to the skin care category.

Worldwide, a number of products have already been launched onto the market incorporating stem cell technology, and in an exclusive interview with CosmeticsDesign.com USA, Aldrich says ISC is currently working on the development of a crème for under the eyes, together with a number of other skin care products.

The company launched its first skin care products onto the market in November last year - a defensive day moisture serum and a recovery night moisture serum, which is said to contain extracts from human parthenogenetic stem cells.

Of particular importance is the fact that the company has developed its stem cell technology without the use of human embryos. It claims that its technology it has the functionality of human embryonic stem cells but without the sometimes controversial ethical issues that can arise.

Tackling the regulation hurdles​

Because stem cell technology has proved to be a potentially sticky area in certain country, Aldrich explained how regulation has, on occasion, proved to be a hurdle.

“Some countries make importation of cosmetic products using human cells difficult or impossible,”​ said Aldrich. “In others, it is not an issue. That will affect our product roll-out strategy beyond the US market.” ​

“We have already had distribution inquiries from India, China, the Emirates, Canada and Europe, so we will need to address a lot of international questions in the months to come. That is a happy problem to have.”​

Product claims have to be carefully worded​

Aldrich also went on to explain that, providing product claims are carefully worded and respect FDA regulation, launching a product containing stem cell technology is not as problematic as many people might think.

“We carefully comply with all the FDA and other regulatory rules relating to claims and recommended usage so that we never make medical claims and remain classified as a cosmetic and not a regulated drug, but otherwise have no special issues that would be different from those faced by any other cosmetic product,”​ he said.

This is the second year that the Leadership Panel is being staged and the programme has again been organized by Meyer Rosen, president at Interactive Consulting and chief scientific advisor & director of technical programming at HBA.

June 28th, 1pm - 2:15pm. Be there!​

The conference will take place as part of the technical track for the event’s educational programme, tomorrow, Tuesday June 28th, from 1pm to 2.15pm. It will be focused on generating an interesting discussion to highlight some of the most cutting edge technologies available in the skin care segment right now.

Entitled, Leadership Panel : Generating the Future in Skin Anti-Aging Technology, the conference segment will feature five leading industry experts who all work by harnessing new technologies to create safe and more effective cosmetics and personal care products for the consumer market.

The panel includes a diverse range of industry professionals, including Aldrich, as well as Dr. Michael Southall, senior research fell, Skin Biology and Preclinical Pharmacology at Johnson & Johnson, Rebecca James Gadberry, CEO YG Laboratories, Hani Fares, senior direct for personal care at ISP and Dr. Robb Akridge, VP of clinical research at Pacific Bioscience Laboratories.