POLA launches Japan first active wrinkle care

Pola, the major Japanese cosmetic manufacturer launched on Jan. 1st,  its accomplishment after 15 years of researches and development: the Wrinkle Shot Medical Serum.

Pola is the first company in Japan to have succeeded to register its wrinkle care product as a quasi-drug.

Cosmetics and quasi-drugs categories

In Japan, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour & Welfare classifies the beauty products under 2 categories: cosmetics and quasi-drugs. Quasi-drugs, in opposite to cosmetics, are medicated, have a mild pharmacologic effect and include active ingredients. If the product is approved as a quasi-drug by the ministry, the manufacturer is allowed to actually claim the effectiveness of the product.

This distinction has quite an impact on the consumers, familiar with the term, as more and more products such as whitening or for sensitive skin are quasi-drugs.

World-first discovery on mechanism of wrinkles

In their researches on the mechanism of wrinkles, Pola discovered for the first time in the world one of the causes of wrinkles and this is what led them to the development of the new Wrinkle Shot.

Wrinkles are created by inflammations caused by factors such as UV, dryness or expressions of the face. However, we didn’t know how these inflammations became wrinkles. Pola discovered that a type of lymphocyte called neutrophil that is found in these inflammations releases enzymes called neutrophil elastase, which destroy collagen and elastin in the dermis, leading to the creation of wrinkles.

So they spent 8 years developing an inhibitor to the activity of neutrophil elastase. They came up with an original active ingredient NEI-L1.

The NEI-L1, as soon as applied to the skin, along with the moisture of the face, has the ability to penetrate as deep as the dermis and inhibit the action of neutrophil elastase. Wrinkle Shot Medical Serum effectively improves the appearance of wrinkles!

What about the awaited efficacy?

Tested on 68 women, during 12 weeks, twice a day, the wrinkle shot improved the appearance of wrinkles on 70% of women. The best improvement rate of wrinkles, on women showing the most reduced wrinkles appearance, was 34%.

More growth for Pola

In high-end brands category, Pola ranks in 3rd position after Shiseido and P&G.

Pola has been growing for the past years; in 2015, with the renovation of their existing range B.A, Pola achieved their first-month target sales in only 3 days after the launch resulting to the annual sales rising 8.4% year-on-year to 109.3 billion yen and operating profit up 43.3% year-on-year to 12.3 billion yen for the sole brand Pola. Their products are innovative using new technologies.

For the Wrinkle Shot Medical Serum, they forecast annual sales of 10 billion yen for this sole product, which is the first and highest forecast ever.

Anti-aging category is very enticing for cosmetic manufacturers as in Japan, 40% of the potential cosmetics users (15 to 89 years) are now older than 60 years. In addition, the use of anti-aging products by young generation is now common as anti-aging is considered as prevention of aging.

http://www.pola.co.jp/brand/wrinkle/

20g, ¥15,000
Fragrance and colorants free

Sources:

• POLA ORBIS holdings, news release, IR
• WWD Beauty
• Fuji Keizai, Cosmetics Marketing Manual 2015