Crown Joins SeeHer; Mentor, Avita Updates; Take 5: Revision's Maria Carell; Take 5: Benev's Ethan Min

Since its launch in 2000, Benev has expanded from its initial focus as a global skincare manufacturing company to a medical aesthetic solution company. Under the leadership of CEO Ethan Min, who started at the company as a sales rep 17 years ago, Benev has launched several new products in the US market and has its eye on many more. Mr. Min spoke to Modern Aesthetics® magazine about the company’s innovations and its future plans.

Benev is a focused on aesthetic solutions.

“Benev is now a global network of 17 distributors internationally and in the US market. The vast majority of our clients are physicians or skincare professionals. We have over 10,000 physician accounts globally. About seven years ago, we ventured into expanding our model into aesthetic solutions.

Utilizing our well-established network of physicians, we felt that we could introduce innovative and very result-driven products from Asia to the US market and vice versa. Today we have four major pillars that compromise our business. First, we feature cosmeceuticals under the Benev brand. Next is state-of-the-art medical devices. We also have a proprietary supplement that is currently only distributed in Asia, and finally we have a robust contract manufacturing business. As CEO, over the last four years I initiated the shift from being a skincare cosmeceutical manufacturer and brand into a multi-faceted medical aesthetic solution company.

“Our goal is to provide our customer with combination solutions for aging skin. Our threads, exosomes, skincare and RF Microneedling system, SYLFIRM X uniquely allow our customers to access top of the line products for skin revitalization and more specifically, the ‘non-surgical face lift.’”

A global growth factor force.

“We launched our first growth factor product in 2007 designed to support our physician customers and their practices post microneedling and laser treatments. The potential of growth factors on the recovery and wound healing aspect was huge. These products are categorized as cosmetics, but they were intentionally designed as post-care for physicians to maximize treatment outcomes for their patients.

“Our extensive experience and expertise with growth factors led us to develop exosomes. We began the process of researching and advancing the exosome products about five years ago. Our exclusive partnership with Exocobio, one of the forefronts and largest exosome biotech companies, empowered us to develop Exosome Regenerative Complex, the first lyophilized, double filtered, and refrigerated (under 10 Celsius) product in the U.S market in 2019. This was a breakthrough as we no longer had to keep our product in -20 Celcius freezer. Exocobio’s technology helped us to register our exosome ingredient to Personal Care Product Council and it was awarded a INCI name ‘Human Adipose Stromal Cell Exosomes’ which we are very proud of.”

Exosomes are a differentiator.

“Exosomes are nanoparticles secreted from cells and responsible for cell to cell communication. It is considered to be one of the scientific breakthroughs since its existence known to the world about 10 years ago. There are fewer than 20 exosome companies in the medical aesthetics field today. All use similar manufacturing processes, but they have different sources for the cell. We use adipose-derived stem cell, and we are the only company that has successfully commercialized the lyophilized (freeze-dried) exosomes in the topical skincare category.

Regrettably, there is a lot of confusion in the market. The FDA has challenged some of these marketers due to the claims they are making and the way they are recommending these products be used.

As a company that has manufactured premium science-based skincare for 20 years, and has worked closely with the FDA, the Benev team understands the regulatory perspective. We have categorized our product accurately and responsibly and have not put forth any inappropriate claims.”

Our approach to aesthetics is holistic.

“We wanted to look at aesthetics in a more holistic way and provide different solutions to our professional partners. In many cases, this means co-branding existing Benev solutions. We registered and introduced the Miracu PDO thread in the market in 2018 as the first PDO thread approved that has its own design that combines a cannula with the PDO threads. Our approach has always been to ensure that we are regulatory compliant. We waited for over three years to get the proper 510(k) Class II approval on the PDO thread. As the industry is growing, we now have competition from other thread brands that have used our clearance as the predicate. We believe that we have a huge opportunity with our best-in-class PDO thread.

In 2021, we launched the Sylfirm X RF needling device, the first dual wave, non-insulated RF device, indicated for dermal coagulation, in the US market. While it incorporates some of the feature of conventional continuous wave RF, it includes pulsed wave technology that breaks down continuous wave into four segments of energy to minimize the radiofrequency output for selected targets, such as basement membrane or surface vessels. Backed by more than 25 publications, we have also been studying this device for treating melasma, pigmentation, and vascular-related applications for future FDA clearance.”

Pivoting is a strength.

“One of our most important accomplishments is that we opened our business model to partner with companies that have the newest innovative technology. I am very excited to have different exosome products in our pipeline by continuously developing our exosome products within the industry and partnering with ExocoBio. We are looking at additional devices and developing another important collaboration with a pharmaceutical manufacturer to bring a new category of aesthetic products to the US market. By leveraging our regulatory knowledge and distribution channels, as well as our physician partners, we see a bright future ahead for Benev.”

At Revision Skincare, “Everything starts with science,” says CEO Maria Carell. Revision was recently acquired, along with Goodier Cosmetics, by Gryphon Investors. With more than two decades experience creating medical skincare products, Revision is completely vertically integrated, completing all research and development and manufacturing in-house, Ms. Carell says. She spoke with Modern Aesthetics® magazine about the company and its future.

Year-over-year growth outpaces the market.

“We grew extraordinarily quickly even through the pandemic. We ended 2020 with growth at 30 percent year-over-year. In 2021, it accelerated to around 40 percent organic growth.

We’ve, over the past years, been growing substantially above the market, and I attribute that to multiple things. I always start with the product and our clinical and formulation philosophy. Consumers today are becoming more and more discerning, and that’s good for the entire industry of professional skincare and physician defined skincare.”

Revision stands for science.

“If you look at what we stand for, that’s been science first and then marketing. I attribute our growth to the fact that we made a very conscious choice of investing in clinical research. I come from pharma, and I can say that when we do clinical trials, they look almost like pharmaceuticals. We do double-blinded, placebo-controlled, clinically statistically significant trials. We do multiple trials. We do biopsies. We do ultrasounds. We use multiple methods to show what the products actually do.”

Revision leads trends.

“In 2019, we launched BodiFirm, which is one of the first body products in the anti-aging space. In 2020, we launched a lip product and some take-home masks and peels because with COVID a lot of patients couldn’t go see their professionals. In May 2021, we launched the most successful product in our history called Revox Line Relaxer, a product that is designed to be used with neurotoxins. That product is already one of our largest SKUs.

If you would’ve asked me 10 years ago, the profile of the consumer using professional skincare, it was probably someone in their 40s or 50s who wanted to correct something. That is still the case, but we see a tremendous growth within the younger population who wants to prevent. We see patients and consumers in their twenties and in their thirties invest in skin health earlier. That’s a big paradigm shift.

To boost your skin and the long-term skin health, products must work in symbiosis with the microbiome on the skin. Unfortunately, it’s become a buzzword, but there is a lot of research around products that don’t harm the microbiome. They can be neutral or even better, they can support it, because that is truly protecting the skin long term.”

Gryphon partnership brings opportunities.

“We’re absolutely delighted to partner with the team at Gryphon for our next phase of growth. Gryphon has a lot of experience and knowledge within skincare, consumer health, and professionally endorsed brands, and they also own dermatology practices. We partnered with an owner who has a very deep expertise to help us get to the next level, both domestically and internationally.

We’re going to be more visible. We want to bring more innovation to the market. We’re going to continue work with thought leaders. And we will remain committed to our professional business partners. That does not change.

Bringing together our two highly complementary companies has positioned Revision with the funding and the scale and the capabilities to compete and win in today’s dynamic global environment. Both companies have experience we can leverage. One plus one becomes three in this case.”

Revision is partnering with practices.

“We look at ourselves as business partners. This is what we aspire to be: more than only suppliers of skincare. We try to support our business accounts, not only with good products, but also help them run successful practices. That means that we sit down and help them with their plans and ways we can support them with incorporating skincare in the practice together with the procedures and everything else they do. It is not limited to what’s happening in the office. In today’s world patients and consumers move between channels and we all need to meet them where they are. Therefore, we do also for example offer online eCommerce platforms for our accounts, in case they don’t have those capabilities by themselves. We can also help them with microsites so they can sell skincare. ”