Probiotical SpA, which is based in Novara, in Italy’s Po Valley, advertises more than 60 proprietary probiotic strains and more than 300 custom blends. The company claims to have more than 2,000 strains overall in its portfolio covered by 80 families of patents. The company has a long history under the leadership of the Mogna family of lactic acid bacteria production for the dairy industry. The current iteration of the firm was founded in 1985.
“Our extreme number of strains, as well as our full-spectrum expertise in strain development, testing and research, give Probiotical a greater understanding of both the highest growth categories such as gut health, and up-and-coming categories including the skin microbiome,” said CEO Vera Mogna. “We are extremely well positioned to focus on specific markets with specific applications.”
Solid evidence for beauty-from-within
Beauty-from-within has been one of the categories that has been forecasted for imminent rapid growth for more than a decade. But Mogna said there is now solid evidence that this trend is a real thing and not just the wishful thinking of marketing gurus and online personalities.
“We are seeing consumers becoming more aware of the importance of clinically demonstrated benefits and of natural products with clean labels, and we have witnessed major growth in both research on the skin microbiome and the commercialization of topical and oral products targeting skin health,” Mogna told NutraIngredients-USA.
“Probiotical has been producing and conducting in vitro and clinical studies on probiotic strains for the last several years in the areas of atopic dermatitis and acne for customers in Europe,” she added.
“We have been monitoring the direct-to-consumer, and social media e-commerce in the skin microbiome category as one forecasting tool and it appears to be on track with our expectations of the US following the European skin microbiome consumer trends,” she said.
Mogna said Probiotical is leveraging its significant research capabilities to develop products for the US market that target the skin microbiome specifically. This will include both topical applications, which will target the skin microbiome directly, as well as well-supported strains that have skin health effects via modes of action in the gut microbiome.
The rise of the ‘skinfluencers’
A lot of this growth is bound to come via sales in online channels. The ecommerce shift seems to be happening more rapidly in this product category than in the market for supplements generally, she said.
“There is no question that direct-to-consumer and e-commerce makes up a significant portion of the sales channel in which social media “skinfluencers” on Youtube and TikTok will continue to inform consumers and direct them to their preferred or own products in the skin microbiome category,” Mogna said.
The company is also said to be developing strains and blends to target vaginal health and the health of infants as well as tradtional gut health targets.