Symrise to Acquire Italian Biotech Company Cutech

May 6th, 2019

Audrey Latimer

Symrise has announced the acquisition of the Italian biotech company Cutech.

According to Symrise, the purchase will "add a competitive edge in bio-analytical methods, expand R&D capacities for the efficacy testing of cosmetic ingredients, accelerate the development of active ingredients based on predictive ex vivo models and provide unique pre-clinical screening services to the cosmetic industry."

Cutech specializes in pre-clinical screening services based on proprietary ex vivo skin, sebaceous gland and hair models. The company also contributes immunoprecipitation (IP) on natural ingredients, such as microalgae, which will reportedly help to supplement the Symrise portfolio.

Eder Ramos, president at Symrise's Cosmetic Ingredient Division, said, "The joining forces of Symrise and Cutech will make the development of new proprietary analysis and prediction

models for cosmetic ingredients easier and faster. Such models will strengthen the leadership

of Symrise Cosmetics Ingredients and will position it one step ahead of the competition. For our customers, adding pre-clinical testing to our service portfolio will definitely constitute a plus during their product development. In addition, it will also enable us to further expand our biotech network, thus accessing new, cutting-edge technologies."

Dr. Paolo Pertile, CEO at Cutech, added, "We have decided to closer collaborate with Symrise as both partners can benefit from the union. Symrise acquires considerable know-how in the prediction of the effectiveness of cosmetic ingredients. Cutech will benefit from the broad research base at Symrise and its technological resources. This will lead to a faster development of effective cosmetic ingredients. We look forward with excitement to our

joint projects."