You co-founded S-Biomedic in 2014. How was your company born?
In 2014, I was living in Barcelona, working as a business analyst in market research, but looking for new challenges. I met my two co-founders – Bernhard Paetzold and Marc Güell, both of whom have PhDs in microbiology – while playing beach volleyball. That year, there had been a very successful gut microbiome transplant, and they thought that if that worked so well, the same principle has to apply to the skin. They kept talking about the possible applications. I had had skin problems myself and tried all sorts of products, from those sold at the pharmacy to home remedies. Nothing had worked – which made their proposition sound charming. My background is in management, so Bernhard and Marc convinced me to help them turn their idea into a business.

What problem did you set out to solve?
Lately, there has been a lot of evidence that the skin microbiome – all the bacteria, viruses and fungi that live on our skin – is in some way linked to many different skins conditions. Acne is one of the most obvious, but there are others, including dandruff. Working with the skin microbiome as a platform, we can address many different skin conditions. At S-Biomedic, we already have an acne product on the market and are now working on healthy aging.

Which market are you focusing on and how much is it worth?
Our products focus primarily on the skincare and cosmetics market. We have opportunities for pharma developments, but are focusing on the faster route to market at the moment. The cosmetics market is worth USD 120 billion. The acne market is worth USD 4 billion; USD 2 billion in cosmetics and USD 2 billion in pharma. We are seeing huge growth in the skin microbiome market. In probiotic skincare products, there is about 15% growth year on year.

How has scientists’ understanding of the skin microbiome advanced?
Until a few years ago, the skin microbiome was quite unknown. We did not have the technology to really see the bacteria that live on the skin in sufficient depth, so we did not understand the link between skin disease and the microbiome. Now that we know more, it is a good time to offer a new solution.

“We are changing the industry by bringing in a completely new concept that could not be used before.”

What did you feel was missing from the market, in terms of products?
In dermatology, there is often little understanding of the pathway – what is the cause and what is the consequence of the disease? It is often really complex. For example, acne is not just the result of a single cause. Often, it is a combination of genetics, hyperkeratinization (a disorder of the cells lining the inside of a hair follicle), hormonal levels and bacteria. Many products on the market treat the symptoms, rather than the disease itself. By focusing on the skin microbiome, we can really tackle one part of the cause of the disease. We are changing the industry by bringing in a completely new concept that could not be used before. The microbiome offers a completely new toolbox.

In what ways do existing products fall short?
Firstly, there are a lot of relapses. As soon as you stop using a particular cream, the disease comes back. Secondly, many products used in dermatology have quite severe side effects such as skin irritation, redness even psychological side effects like mood swings. There is also antibiotic resistance; doctors often prescribe antibiotics for skin problems, but the bacteria keep developing more and more resistance.

How do your products help the skin help itself?
Our treatment is based on the same principle as in the gut microbiome transplant. Imagine your skin, with a bacteria population living on it. Some of the bacteria are more pathogenic – they create irritation and inflammation, and challenge your immune system. We swipe away the population and replace it with a live, new population. It lives on the skin and helps it return to a healthy state.

Who are your customers?
Our first product is for people with acne. Most of them have already tested different products and discovered that, with age, their skin is no longer as robust as young skin, which can tolerate a lot of harsh treatment. A huge advantage of our product is that it does not have side effects, such as skin irritation or dryness. It works, but it is really gentle.

What is your business model?
Our business model has two parts: we combine B2B and B2C, where we have the Sencyr brand as a flagship and can put our technology on the market at an early stage. This hopefully helps the bigger industry players launch these types of products globally to get this technology to consumers as quickly as possible. In terms of B2C, we sell directly online, because we want to really understand our customers and collect feedback. We also do B2B, using our bacteria as active ingredients and licensing our technology to big industry players. All our bacteria are patented; the strains, the formulations and how they are packaged.

What sets you apart from your competitors?
We are unique in how we work with a particular species – cutibacterium acnes. We are the first ones to bring products in the market that contain live strains of cutibacterium acnes. Its advantage is that it is the most dominant species on the human face. We have published multiple scientific papers and place considerable emphasis on clinical testing. All our products have been tested to ensure that they are safe and effective. We have a strong IP portfolio with a high number of patents and trademarks, and a unique strainbank, a database of the strains we have physically available. The main benefit for consumers is efficacy, with no side effects.

You have just launched the first LiveSkin Probiotics in the cosmetics market under the brand Sencyr. What is new about this product?
This is the first time that cutibacterium acnes is on the market; it has not been done before. Probiotics are being used in skincare already, with companies using the traditional gut probiotics, lactobacillus and bifidobacillus. In contrast, we use true skin probiotics – bacteria that belong on the skin. That is completely new.

Your approach has been backed up by extensive clinical studies. What did they find?
When we conduct tests, we do placebo controls. With our products, we can show statistically significant improvement over a placebo.

Moving on from acne, how can S-Biomedic’s products support healthy aging?
We are now offering our healthy aging active ingredient for B2B. This year, we will start working on incorporating that active ingredient into a new product line that we will be launching as part of the Sencyr brand as well. The active ingredient is ready to go into the products, it just needs to be incorporated now.

Surely healthy aging is a huge market, with considerable potential in the coming years?
Indeed. The more we see, the more we learn how pollution, stress and sun exposure damage the skin in different ways. This damage accumulates. Skin cancer is the result of aging skin. If we can really show that this type of bacteria can reduce this danger, it will be extremely powerful.

How easy is it to find investors interested in this topic?
This is definitely an extremely hot field. Among investors, it is a relatively young field. With the microbiome, we are on the threshold between pharma and consumer products, because it has the pharma potential, but at the same time we still have the space to go for consumer products. For investors, it can be difficult to put us in a box. Like many other microbiome companies, we also bring something of a new business model to the field.

“We have the ambition to go global.”

What is the potential for scalability?
We are focusing on the German market, because we believe that German customers really appreciate organic origins, as well as science and technology. We have the regulatory approval to ship all over Europe, in including the UK, though. With partners, we have the ambition to go global.

What feedback have you had from customers?
Some people have been following S-Biomedic for years, waiting for our product to be developed. We have not just developed a product – we have created a routine for our customers, which we guide them through. It is never about one product; it is about how you take care of yourself and your skin from different angles. We give people a new tool to do this in a much more advanced way. Already, customers are coming back, asking for more and buying new products. That is really exciting; it gives us a lot of energy.

What is your priority for the year ahead?
We are preparing to scale up our R&D programs. Acne is finished, healthy aging is finished, and we have another four programmes to start. We also want to expand commercialization, growing Sencyr and growing our presence among consumers, and increasing B2B sales activity. We have licensed out the acne active ingredient and are looking for the right active ingredient for the healthy aging one. This is on the agenda for 2022.