Debut Biotech teams up with Image Skincare for personalized beauty

In a laboratory tucked away in Southern California, scientists at Debut Biotech are testing molecules using advanced biotechnology to create new skin care formulations.

The San Diego-based company, founded nearly seven years ago, is pioneering new ingredients that specifically target different aspects of skin health. One of the company’s latest innovations, an ingredient called EDL, will be used in a new skin-tightening product with Image Skincare scheduled to hit shelves next year, CNBC has learned.

“Our reason for being is because we believe that biology can make better things and can offer sustainable performance alternatives to what is currently available to the world,” CEO Joshua Britton told CNBC.

The company focuses on identifying and replicating molecules found in nature, refining and expanding those ingredients to achieve their specific benefits for skin longevity, and formulating them into products that meet consumer needs. Britton defined biotechnology as the use of advanced technology “to discover, validate, and commercialize high-performance ingredients.”

He added that Debut’s “secret sauce” is the company’s vertically integrated structure, which ensures it can conduct research and development and also see its products up the supply chain, all in-house.

“Like pharmaceutical companies, they own their manufacturing processes, they own making the product, they own marketing the product and they sell it directly to doctors,” Britton said. “So the synthetic biology industry has had to learn that, and overcome those problems, but now it has taken off, and we are seeing real change.”

Debut then works with its client list, from the beauty giant Loreal to smaller brands like Reome, to incorporate its ingredients into products and formulations.

Because of its vertical integration structure, Debut is able to speed up its process, with iteration cycles taking just one to two weeks, allowing the company to ensure its discoveries get directly into consumers’ hands, Britton said.

“The public and private investor base has always seen the promise of biotechnology, but has always invested in horizontal companies and unfortunately lost a lot of money,” Britton said. “But now investors are starting to see things popping up in supermarkets, in the local market, in supply chains – we’re about to see this new resurgence of biotech, and the recovery this time will have a product focus, not a science focus.”

This structure is becoming increasingly important for beauty brands, according to Lindy Firstenberg, senior vice president of beauty and luxury at AlixPartners. The consumer base is becoming more aware of the products they put on their skin, with the emergence of what Firstenberg calls the “consumer PhD.”

With more knowledgeable customers comes a greater demand for the hard science typically seen in the pharmaceutical sector, she said.

“That’s why you’ve seen this rise in vertical integration, and what it really does is it gives customers what they’re really asking for,” she told CNBC. “Because these consumers are asking for comprehensive programs, they’re thinking injectable, injectable, bolus, topical, and instrument therapy; they’re really looking for absolutely everything.”

In a world where beauty and wellness have become ingrained and intertwined with daily routines, Firstenberg said she believes biotechnology in the industry is not just a fad, but that it is here to stay.

“I actually think you’ll end up with beauty, health and wellness companies that are integrated, and have different delivery methodologies and different delivery systems, because you’ll have fewer beauty, health and wellness companies that can do that,” Firstenberg said. “Those who can do that are really going to set themselves apart.”

Some Debut components are already on the market. Earlier this year, it partnered with Reome to introduce an ingredient called DHK, which targets skin barrier repair and is derived from the desert’s Joshua Tree aloe.

Using natural ingredients alone often produces inconsistent results based on crop variety and can harm the environment, but biotechnology allows Reome to use those ingredients in a more sustainable and consistent way, said Joanna Elner, founder of Reome.

“Based on a biotechnology ingredient delivery system, we have the potential to reach new levels of efficacy in skin care that were not possible before,” Elner told CNBC.

The company’s eye cream, which contains Debut’s molecule DHK, focuses on tightening the skin around the eyes, and Ellner said it’s 1.3 times more effective than standard ingredients like vitamin C.

“For me, the excitement is that we’re honestly working with new ingredients, and we’re generally at the very sharp end of innovation,” Elner said. “We don’t lump a bunch of pre-existing ingredients together and call it a new word or some kind of compound – that’s real.”

The new collaboration with Image Skincare features Debut’s EDL ingredient, which focuses on the popular topic of skin tightening. The company, which recently developed a topical skin-tightening product for GLP-1 patients experiencing rapid weight loss, aims to be at the forefront of innovation and new trends, according to CEO Senen Bamić.

The new partnership with Debut is in line with that, he added.

In initial clinical trials, Pamich said the company observed the product’s ability to enhance skin longevity and vitality when combined with Image’s pre-existing formulations, including its technology that allows antioxidants to penetrate deeper into the skin.

“There’s a very high level of application of biotechnology in the pharmaceutical world, right? So why not in skin care and beauty?” Pamitch said.

The lab is still debuting the development of more biotech ingredients to target specific consumer concerns, such as the new PNAR ingredient, which helps treat hyperpigmentation.

Britton added that while this process might take other companies nearly two decades, the use of artificial intelligence and biotechnology to access these components allows the debut process to take about a year.

This speed, efficiency and precision is why he believes biotechnology is the future of innovation, and not just in beauty. While Depot chose the beauty sector specifically for its higher margins, Britton said he sees vertical integration and biotechnology as useful in a variety of other industries, such as nutrition.

This sentiment was echoed by Oliver Wright, Accenture’s global consumer industries leader, who emphasized that the technology’s ability to create targeted molecules while prioritizing sustainability will allow it to thrive.

According to research by Accenture, demand for GMO ingredients is expected to grow 15% to 20% annually through 2026, driven by Generation Z’s trust in science-backed solutions. The biotech skin care market is expected to exceed $8 billion by 2031, according to Precision Business Insights.

“Biotechnology is about enhancing nature’s products — yes, it’s done in laboratories, but it’s fundamentally about taking a human product that exists in nature and making sure it’s improved and created for the benefit of humans,” Wright told CNBC. “So people don’t need to fear it in the way they might otherwise.”

In other words, this new technology is moving the needle — and beauty giants like Sephora and Ulta Wright said the company will need to pay attention and tailor its messaging to consumers who may be overwhelmed by a wide range of choices.

However, the next step is toward “the holy grail of cosmetics,” he said: personal beauty. With the advent of generative artificial intelligence and consumers’ increasing knowledge of science and technology, Wright said he expects there will be an expansion of the definition of beauty to include wellness.

“I think the destination here will be the increasing ability for us to personalize this through diagnostics, and therefore through product selection, but then increasingly toward actual personalization,” Wright said. “I actually think, if we fast forward 10 years, that will be the norm in the industry.”