By NICK STEWART
Nearly five years after its inception, Thunder Bay-based Genesis Genomics has formed a partnership with a worldwide leader in skin care to bring the company’s first product to market.
Through an agreement with Toronto-based VitalScience Corp., the company will find its unique technologies used to develop dermaglow DNA, a kit designed to test for acute and chronic damage the sun’s ultraviolet rays do to one’s skin.
“These are interesting times for us, as we’re going to be wholly unique on the market,” Robert Poulter, president of Genesis Genomics, says.
“There’s literally no competition for what we’re offering, so we’ve got some pretty high hopes for this.”
Through the agreement, VitalScience will build, market and sell the kits through Canadian dermatologists and pharmacies as part of its established dermaglow line in early 2008. This will grow to more than 40 countries worldwide by 2009.
VitalScience currently has the top-selling skin care product in Canada and is specifically known for their anti-aging Nuvectin. It consistently sells in the top 10 in other countries including France, Scandinavia and Greece.
This strong global presence and history of success helped to draw Genesis Genomics to the table, allowing the company to leverage VitalScience’s pre-existing retail channels and relationships. As a result, the product will find widespread distribution and sales that may have otherwise taken countless years and dollars to realize, Poulter says.
This is especially true as VitalScience expects to further expand its reach to seven different countries in the Middle East in the coming months.
Two types of kits are expected to be offered; a non-invasive product that will find consumers using a cotton swab on their skin to collect a sample. The other kit is “mildly invasive.” A small needle will extract a skin sample that is then inserted into a vial and sent to a laboratory. Although details are still being determined and further agreements still being developed, Poulter says the laboratory in question is likely to be one already located in Northern Ontario.
While Poulter is insistent on pointing out the kit does not predict skin cancer, he says various levels of DNA damage can act as precursors to the affliction. Helping consumers to be informed about the extent of the damage can allow them to make informed decisions about how to further pursue other product purchases. This is particularly crucial at a time where concern about skin cancer is on the rise, and sunscreen lotions fail to completely block ultraviolet rays.
Genesis Genomics currently has several other products in various stages of market readiness. These include DNA Care, which helps sun care manufacturers measure their product against DNA damage, and a product called biopsy+, a confirmatory test for prostate cancer. Discussions are ongoing to hammer out agreements with large global companies for these particular products, while three other unidentified projects are currently winding their way through the research pipeline.
In fact, as a response to its recent agreement and in anticipation of future growth, the company will be expanding in the coming months.
In November, two employees will be added to its current staff of 16 and additional employees will be hired through 2008.
This wide-ranging agreement not only allows the company to make its official entrance onto the consumer market, but also validates its years of effort and research, Poulter says.
“It starts to allow us as a company to shift from just being research to generating commercial viability and generating a revenue stream that allows us to grow and broaden our investments into new research.”
The head of VitalScience also touts the benefits of the agreement, as Genesis Genomics’ cutting-edge technology will also allow them to further grow their market and capitalize on a growing global trend towards “cosmoceutical” products. What’s more, the patent protection Genesis Genomics has sought for its technologies made it that much more attractive in an industry occasionally prone to piracy.
“They’ve got some good technologies with regards to DNA, and we’ve got the product structure, so it really is a match made in heaven,” Calvin Davies, president and co-founder of VitalScience, says.
