A life sciences discovery can reach the public in many different forms. Simply as news, as in the case of pure research, or as a drug, or even as a cosmetic product. Is any one form preferable to the others? In the past, some scientists looked down on the commercialization process, even for practical purposes such developing pharmaceuticals. This attitude still exists today, although it is far less prevalent before. And some companies engaged in medical or pharmaceutical research look down on the use of scientific research for the purpose of making cosmetics, or products marketed as such. Is that still “real science”?
Dan Yarosh, interviewed on May 23, 2023
Place: Rare Books Room, Carnegie Library, CSHL
Interviewer: Antoinette Sutto
I wasn’t hung up on was it a drug or a cosmetic. My goal was to get people to use the technology. At the time, Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair was bigger than almost all the dermatology drugs. If you want to get your technology used by people, this route was the way to do it. So when Estée Lauder bought the company, the first thing they did was have me withdraw the drug application. They killed the Dimericine drug application. They’re a cosmetic company.
Antoinette: So they decided, we’re not going to go with this for drug purposes. They’re going to use this as basically-
Daniel: We’re going to use the technology.
Antoinette: -for making a skin cream to help people prevent sunburn.
Daniel: Right. Dimericine was a drug, Ultrasomes® was a cosmetic ingredient. The difference was T4 endonuclease V was in Dimericine and the purified enzyme from Micrococcus luteus that I had made in Dick Setlow’s laboratory was in Ultrasomes®. It was not a drug. We didn’t make cancer claims. Wasn’t the same thing. That was the cosmetic. Did the technology get to the marketplace? Yes. Did it go through the drug route? No.
Antoinette: It’s the same technology and there’s the same general scientific background behind it but what is actually specifically in the jars is a different–
Daniel: Right.How do you follow the law and what do you do in order to get a product into market? In my biotech career, I had several experiences in which I was collaborating or working with a company that was set on a drug. I said, ” You know you could take that technology and make a cosmetic or beauty care ingredient and I could get it on the market in 18 months. You’re talking about seven years of clinical development. You could be making money from this for your company in 18 months.”
They said, “We don’t do that. We’re a drug company. We’re not a cosmetic company.” Six months later they’re bankrupt. I’ve seen that three or four times.
Antoinette: It sounds like an echo of the academic scientists’ suspicion of biotech years before. It’s sort of, we don’t want to get into this other thing because that’s not serious.
Daniel: It’s beneath us.