标签归档 上海4197龙凤

　　Correspondent Tang Tang Our reporter Zhang Wei

　　When people get sick, they often have to hang water to take medicine. However, after the drug enters the human body, it is not smooth sailing to reach the designated position, stay for a longer time, be better absorbed, and avoid being accidentally injured by friendly forces.

　　In recent 20 years, more and more new nano-pharmaceutical preparations have flooded into the market, and nano-liposomes with the name of "small steamed buns" in the carrier have emerged as the times require. This kind of vesicle with nanometer particle size formed by lipid bilayer can wrap drugs with great toxic and side effects, poor stability and rapid degradation. By fusing with the cell membrane, the carried drugs are concentrated in the focus, so as to achieve targeted administration, and at the same time, the curative effect can be improved, the toxicity can be reduced, and the stability can be enhanced.

　　Recently, Professor Gu Ning of Southeast University led a team to break the technical barriers abroad, overcome the key technologies of nano-lipid materials, built the first domestic and largest production line of lipid nanoparticles in the world, and won the first prize of scientific and technological progress in Jiangsu Province.

　　Then, how does this nano-scale "little one" take on the heavy responsibility of "packaging" and "transporting" through-train service? What other unknown uses do nanoliposomes have besides their great potential in drug carriers?

　　Known as the secret weapon of "rejuvenation"

　　The formation of liposomes is due to the self-assembly properties of a substance called phospholipids. Phospholipid is an amphiphilic substance, one end is hydrophilic and the other is lipophilic. Due to the particularity of its molecular configuration, phospholipid will spontaneously assemble into a bimolecular membrane structure in water, and part of it will be wrapped inside, which is usually called "vesicle".

　　The earliest liposomes were naturally formed in water. After scientists discovered its special skills, they tried to synthesize phospholipid compounds by artificial methods in order to achieve the purpose of mass production. The diameter of liposomes is usually tens of nanometers to tens of millimeters, and "nano-liposomes" are liposomes with nanometer particle size.

　　The membrane structure of lipid nanomaterials is very close to the cell membrane, which provides convenience for drug delivery and absorption. Therefore, liposomes can wrap the effective components and introduce them into cells, so that the effective components can easily enter cells.

　　In many common drugs, liposomes are responsible. Such as antineoplastic drugs, drugs targeting reticuloendothelial system, protein and nucleic acid drugs, antibacterial drugs, anti-inflammatory hormone drugs, etc. Moreover, the drug with liposome as the carrier "skin is not delicate" can be administered in any way, including intravenous injection, subcutaneous and intramuscular injection, oral administration, pulmonary administration and skin administration.

　　"The size of liposomes is related to the route of administration and drug release rate, but nano-sized liposomes have obvious advantages as drug carriers." Professor Gu Ning told reporters that daunorubicin liposomes, for example, have a particle size of 60-mdash; 120 nm, because of its small particle size, it is not easily recognized by phagocytes of reticuloendothelial system after entering the blood circulation, so it can stay in the blood circulation for a long time. At the same time, the pharmaceutical preparation has no obvious cardiotoxicity.

　　In recent years, more and more nanoliposome drugs have flooded into the international market and become the fastest-growing high-end pharmaceutical preparation in the world. Nanoliposomes not only play an important role in the pharmaceutical industry, but also act as a professional "courier" in cosmetics. It can keep the activity of cosmetics well, so that growth factors and other ingredients can enter the stratum corneum faster and more completely, thus enhancing the cell repair ability. Therefore, liposome encapsulation is known as the secret weapon of "rejuvenation".

　　Oil-loving and hydrophilic "amphiphilicity" increases the difficulty of mass production

　　In recent years, in the international pharmaceutical field, dexterous and multifunctional nanoliposomes have almost become "online celebrity".

　　At present, a total of 29 nanoliposome drugs have been approved for marketing in the world. In addition, there are 87 nanoliposome drugs in clinical research stage and 132 nanoliposome drugs in preclinical research stage. Among them, there are 13 nanoliposome drugs approved for marketing by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

　　In sharp contrast, only three nanoliposome drugs in China have been approved for production, namely paclitaxel liposome for injection, doxorubicin hydrochloride liposome and amphotericin B liposome for injection.

　　But 10 years ago, the related drugs and cosmetics in China were blank, and the people in China could not touch them at all, because the key technologies of lipid nanomaterials were in the hands of foreigners.

　　The international market share of nanoliposome drugs is increasing year by year, but the industrialization development in this field in China has been slow. "The reason is that the lipid nanomaterials needed by nanoliposome drugs are completely imported, and their prices far exceed the raw materials themselves; Second, the quality, purity and stability of domestic liposome pharmaceutical preparations need to be improved; Third, the assembly technology of lipid nano-materials and the preparation technology of lipid nano-drugs have high requirements and great difficulties. " Professor Gu Ning told reporters.

　　In 1970s, when liposomes were first used as drug carriers, they were once ignored because of their extremely unstable structure and low drug encapsulation efficiency. With the in-depth study of liposomes, the existing problems have been solved initially. In the early 1990s, economical and efficient anti-fungal and anti-cancer drug liposomes were put into the market, which greatly promoted the research and development of liposomes.

　　Lipid nano-materials have unique hydrophilic and lipophilic "amphipathy", which makes it possible to add lipophilic and hydrophilic drugs and active ingredients to the same drug at the same time.

　　However, researchers have also found that the amphiphilic nature of lipid nanomaterials is a double-edged sword, which not only provides convenience for drug loading, but also increases the difficulty of mass production. Therefore, the preparation process of lipid nano-materials is complex, which makes it difficult to remove impurities, and it is difficult to purify intermediates and products, so it is difficult to achieve mass production.

　　It is also a treasure to use "the wind blows on both sides"

　　The raw materials for preparing nanoliposomes are not complicated, but if you can’t master the doorway, you can’t make qualified nanoliposomes.

　　Well-made liposomes have a phospholipid bimolecular shell, which is very similar to the structure of cell membrane, and they are very small, and their diameters are basically below 150 nanometers, which is helpful for the penetration of active substances.

　　To realize the localization of lipid nanomaterials, the synthesis process is particularly important. Therefore, Professor Gu Ning’s team put forward an innovative new process for synthesis and purification of lipid nanomaterials. Through self-made separation filler and independent separation and purification technology, they realized the industrialization of high-purity lipid nano-medicinal carrier materials.

　　Lipid nano-materials are hydrophilic at one end and lipophilic at the other, which seems to be "the wind blows on both sides", so how to use them well is also very particular. After repeated experiments, researchers finally found a "trick up my sleeve". "We creatively put oil-soluble drugs on the oleophilic outer layer and water-soluble drugs on the hydrophilic inner layer, giving full play to the role of drugs, and truly fostering strengths and avoiding weaknesses." Professor Gu Ning said.

　　According to Professor Gu Ning, they developed a new process for the synthesis and purification of lipid nanomaterials, which used a "one-pot" reaction to prepare key intermediates, and the yield was doubled. At the same time, the liposome coordination technology broke through the key bottleneck of the assembly of glycyrrhizic acid drug phospholipid complex. Diammonium glycyrrhizinate was complexed with phosphatidylcholine, a lipid material, to form a lipid complex, which greatly improved the lipophilicity of glycyrrhizic acid and made it easier to cross the multiple membrane structures of the digestive tract and enter the blood circulation, effectively solving the problem of low oral bioavailability of glycyrrhizic acid.

　　After the success of the project, the price of domestic lipid nano-materials dropped significantly, which significantly reduced the overall cost of liposome drugs. In addition, lipid nanoparticles technology has been widely used in domestic first-line cosmetics companies, and it has played a great role in preparing cosmetics with whitening, anti-aging and wrinkle removal functions.

The development trend of 2023 is hidden in these changes.

Author | Xie Kangyu

In 2022, the strongest beauty group is still L ‘Oreal, and the new pattern of domestic beauty is supported by Huaxi Bio, Betani and Polaiya.

In 2022, more than 30 companies got financing, and more than 20 beauty companies went public. At the same time, more than 25 brands were dim and "left", and 210,000+cosmetics companies silently "disappeared";

In 2022, the big consumer funds turned off, and the beauty financing dropped to zero freezing point in November, while the industrial funds were particularly active this year. From international giants to domestic head companies, they all went to VC and invested/acquired more than 40 projects.

In 2022, 20 international giants adjusted key personnel positions, 9 groups reorganized their businesses, 6 national cosmetics brands set up innovative positions, and successively introduced talents such as chief scientists and chief digital officers.

In 2022, nearly 20 new beauty-related regulations were implemented, and e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, JD.COM and Tik Tok also launched eight related platform specifications, which was accompanied by 433 batches of cosmetics entering the unqualified list this year. More than 400,000 cosmetics were cancelled this year and many enterprises were banned;

In the first 11 months of 2022, the total retail sales of cosmetics fell by 3.1%, which underperformed the consumer market, and the growth rate dropped to the lowest level in five years. But the good news is that with the liberalization of epidemic prevention policy, the tourism retail channels have taken the lead in picking up, and the amount of duty-free shopping on Hainan’s outlying islands from December 13 to 10 exceeded 100 million yuan for seven consecutive days …

The change and invariability in 2022 are recorded in a series of figures, which constitute the underlying development context of the beauty industry in 2022 and reveal the new trend of the industry in 2023. In 2022, the rules were changed and reshuffled. In 2023, a new order is about to be formed, and the dawn of the change will drop to.

The top ten international companies are stable, and the domestic pattern has changed greatly.

In 2022, it will be a particularly difficult year for both giants and small and medium-sized players.

In the first three quarters, nearly half of the top ten international beauty cosmetics experienced negative revenue growth. L ‘Oré al, LVMH and Beiersdorf are the few companies whose revenue growth rate is still above 10%.

Among them, L ‘Oré al has the strongest data, ranking first with sales of 197.2 billion yuan and 12% increase, while Unilever and Estee Lauder are still behind it, with growth rates of 6.8% and -3.7%.

Comparing the rankings in 2022 and 2021, we will find that the ranking of the top ten international companies has not changed much, and the top three companies are stable. European and American companies occupy the market, Japanese and Korean companies continue to decline, and Shiseido, the only Japanese company on the list, continues to decline this year.

On the other hand, the list of the top players in China has changed a lot this year. In the past, Yixian e-commerce with the highest topic fell out of the top 5, and Huaxi Bio rose from the sixth to the second. At the same time, we can see that the gap between the second and third place and the first place is further narrowing. Although shanghai jahwa still ranks first in terms of volume, its performance continues to decline, with negative growth in revenue and net profit in the first three quarters, and its market value is also shrinking.

Huaxi Bio, Betani and Polaiya have become the top three companies in the market value of domestic beauty listed companies with high growth, supporting the new pattern of domestic beauty.

It is worth mentioning that many domestic beauty cosmetics have shown strong resilience in this year’s extreme market environment. Huaxi Bio, Betani, Polaiya and Lushang Development (cosmetics business) achieved high growth of 43.43%, 37.05%, 31.53% and 44% respectively in the first three quarters, surpassing a number of international giants in terms of growth. In addition, Huaxi Bio, which ranked second in revenue, made a net profit of 677 million in the previous three quarters, becoming the most profitable beauty company in China this year.

Although the overall size of domestic beauty cosmetics is still far from that of international giants, it has formed an increasingly clear impact on international giants.

According to the incomplete statistics of China Cosmetics, there are more than 20 foreign brands shrinking the domestic market in various forms this year (withdrawing from China, closing flagship stores, closing offline stores, etc.), among which there are many brands owned by international giants, such as Snowberry owned by Procter & Gamble, Chaling owned by LVMV, and The Eastern owned by Estee Lauder, whose common problem is simply that in the crowded beauty market, there is no strong consumer who has to buy. A large number of products with effective reputation, brand mind and more cost-effective have squeezed their living space.

Under the successive defeats of these nameless brands, a series of soul interrogations that international giants can’t avoid are: where will the next increment come from when the penetration of their main brands has peaked and the channels and customer groups have become increasingly stable? After price reduction and price increase are used one after another, what is the next means to ensure growth and profit? How can we continue to maintain a high premium and avoid the price impact of emerging new brands when the big-name aura is gradually disenchanted and alternative products are constantly emerging?

Many of the problems existing in giants are more profound in domestic brands, but similarly, these problems also constitute opportunities for domestic brands.

From OEM+Marketing to Technology+Efficiency

This year, with a number of "overnight success" brands in online celebrity, the competition logic and pattern of the entire domestic beauty market have undergone earth-shaking changes.

In the past, OEM+cost-effective+fast fashion was used in products, and the way of "blood-washing" social media and live e-commerce in marketing and channels began to fail. A large number of domestic beauty cosmetics rose rapidly in the footsteps of perfect diaries, and quickly disappeared in the rapid switch from "domestic beauty cosmetics" to "negative typical".

We will find that in the changes of these two years, the story of "rising overnight" in domestic beauty products is no longer there, and there are more and more stories of "making a fortune in silence". After several rounds of big waves, many companies still remain at the poker table, even some companies that seemed to be "not beautiful enough" before. Some of them have biotechnology backgrounds and some have medical backgrounds, and many companies are marked with distinctive efficacy and ingredients.

"Effective" and genuine technology have become new competition rules in the new stage. In 2022, enhancing R&D competitiveness was put in the most important position by major domestic beauty companies.

In the financial reports of major domestic beauty companies, the proportion of R&D has been increasing, and even some of them have surpassed international giants in terms of investment proportion. Among several head companies, R&D investment accounts for no less than 2% of total revenue, and the highest R&D investment in the first three quarters of Huaxi Bio accounts for 6.42% of total revenue, while the R&D investment in Betani and Polaiya, which have the highest growth, has increased by more than 80%, which also reveals to some extent why the new pattern is made by these three companies.

Another landmark event this year is that domestic enterprises collectively introduced the role of "chief scientist". This year, five companies introduced seven scientific research-related executives. For example, PMPM also introduced Sun Peiwen, Li Jinhua and Liao Feng as chief scientific research officer, chief formula scientist and R&D partner respectively. On the same day, Shuiyang Co., Ltd. and Polaiya hired Chen Jian and Wei Xiaolan as chief scientists and chief scientific officers respectively.

In addition to enhancing scientific research strength, beauty giants have also left the scene to do VC, laying out potential opportunities through industrial investment to build industrial chain barriers. In 2022, domestic and foreign beauty companies participated in about 40 investment acquisitions, the largest of which was Estee Lauder’s acquisition of Tom Ford, and the investment amount was L ‘Oreal, with a total of 5 cases.

Domestic companies have also made frequent moves this year. After setting up their own investment companies in the past two years, they have carried out many industrial layouts respectively. For example, this year, the most action was Shuiyang shares, which acquired two foreign brands, namely Ifidan and PierAuge, and invested in two domestic start-up brands.

Different from pure financial investment, industrial investment initiated by beauty companies is not only for financial benefits, but also for the formation of industrial resource sharing and business expansion. This year, large consumer funds continue to shrink, and the takeover of industrial funds has undoubtedly injected a wave of vitality into the industry.

The underlying rules have changed.

The tide of listing and bankruptcy are two other landmark events in 2022. In 2022, more than 20 beauty companies were listed, including Shangmei Group, Juzi Bio, Fuerjia and other beauty companies, as well as upstream companies in the industrial chain such as Bai Xinglong, Zhongrong and Yaxiang Spice.

On the other hand, more than 210,000 cosmetic enterprises were "deregistered" in the enterprise registration status, and in 2022, the number of registered cosmetics-related enterprises in China also declined for the first time in the past 10 years.

This year is the most serious year for the decline of the beauty market. According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics this month, from January to November this year, the total retail sales of cosmetics was 365.2 billion yuan, down 3.1% year-on-year, much higher than the 0.1% decline in the total retail sales of social consumer goods, setting a new low in the past five years. From August to November, the growth rate of the cosmetics industry has declined for four consecutive months.

In fact, this year’s decline is a continuation of the overall decline of the industry since 2020, and this year’s black swan incident is particularly frequent. From the suspension of Shanghai at the beginning of the year to the epidemic, more and more cities have been affected. The suspension of express delivery and factory shutdown has greatly inhibited the forward development of the industry. At the same time, the cost increase brought about by the changes in global monetary policy and the constant consumption power have made the industry even worse.

In 2022, the underlying competition logic of the cosmetics industry has also undergone fundamental changes, which is largely due to changes in regulatory rules. In 2022, it is a crucial year for the implementation of new cosmetics regulations and supporting regulations, and it is also a year for the cosmetics industry to make waves.

Previously, according to China Cosmetics, in the past year, relevant departments issued and implemented nearly 20 related laws and regulations. As a whole, there are several major trends: the supervision is further tightened, the rules and standards are clearer, the punishment is more severe, and all aspects such as raw materials, production, brands and channels have been "legally followed".

From this year’s intensive punishment, we can see that five enterprises have been banned this year, and even two have been banned for life. At the same time, with the implementation of the Measures for the Administration of Cosmetics Registration and Filing, more than 400,000 cosmetics were cleared nationwide.

In addition, the entry threshold of the industry as a whole has been continuously improved. In 2022, higher requirements have been put forward for factories, brands and testing institutions. For example, production quality is no longer a matter for factories, and brands should also take relevant responsibilities.

"Inspection Points and Judgment Principles of Cosmetic Production Quality Management Standards" made it clear that brands should also participate in quality supervision, while "Qualification Certification Conditions for Cosmetic Inspection Institutions (Draft for Comment)" made clear requirements for the organization and management of inspection institutions and the qualifications of employees, and the threshold of cosmetics inspection industry was greatly raised.

In 2023, with the implementation of many new regulations, we can meet that the reshuffle of the industry will continue, a new order will be formed soon, and the whole industry will further develop in a healthy and orderly direction in the "pain" of change.

With the liberalization of epidemic control, the cosmetics industry is likely to usher in the dawn in the new year. In December, as an important business segment of many companies, tourism retail has taken the lead in welcoming good news. According to Haikou Customs data, from December 13th to 19th, the amount of duty-free shopping in Hainan’s outlying islands exceeded 100 million yuan for seven consecutive days, which brought a little warmth to the start of 2023.

Change the disk and wait for the dawn.