Croda International Plc has entered into an agreement to acquire Istituto di Ricerche Biotecnologiche SpA. (IRB), a company that specializes in plant cell culture active for personal care and health care.
Via the Sederma brand, Croda will use its knowledge, expertise and global positioning to bring IRB’s plant cell culture technology to all of its customers. The IRB products will add to the Sederma product portfolio, known for its peptide anti-aging ingredients as well as other bioactive molecules. IRB’s reproducible product composition profile, in combination with Sederma’s performance testing and claims validation, will guarantee efficacy previously unknown in plant extract technology.
IRB will benefit from significant investment as part of the Croda group. In combination with Sederma expertise in efficacy testing and ingredient functionality, the focus will be to accelerate developing the technology in the personal care and health care markets through Croda's global selling and distribution network.