Rebounding from a costly contract dispute with a former partner, layoffs and the death of its then-CEO, Isis Biopolymer Inc. has launched its first commercial product, a transdermal patch to reduce facial wrinkles. Company officials say the new product could lead to renewed growth at the fledgling business located in Providence’s nascent Knowledge District.
“This is home-grown and made in Providence,” David B. Poor, chairman of the Isis board, said of the new product, which the company said is available online and in some California spas.
Following a development process that took two years at an estimated cost of $15 million and included what company officials say were extensive clinical trials, the patented Biobliss patch went on the market this summer as an over-the-counter cosmetic product designed for women, promising to reduce wrinkles for up to five days by as much as 50 percent after one hour of noninvasive treatment.
Poor called the patch an example of the latest “elegant engineering” that was not possible even five years ago because of recent advances in miniaturization and electronics packaging. The patch is virtually a “wearable computer,” Poor said, equipped with a battery and chip, delivering multiple anti-aging ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, vitamin B5 and collagen-stimulating peptides.
According to a product summary provided by the company, the patch benefits from “a number of trade secrets developed by working with conductive polymers and flexible circuits.” Company officials declined to specify what those trade secrets might be.
This breakthrough comes at an important time for Isis, a privately held company Michael Jordan, chief operating officer, helped established with the late Emma A. Durand in 2007 in Warwick that moved to Providence less than two years ago. Durand, CEO and chief technical officer for Isis, died in October.
About one year ago, Isis terminated its contract with a California distributor after the latter “ran into financial difficulty,” Poor said, “and pulled out” of a joint project involving the development of the cosmetic patch. The dispute hurt Isis’ cash position and resulted in litigation that is ongoing.
However, due in part to the potential that “Biobliss” brings as its first commercial product, the company has begun to rehire those workers. Jordan said four former employees were called back in January and plans call for more to be rehired depending on the success of the new patch.
There is a lot of room for success in the billion-dollar skin-care market in the United States.
In its product summary, the company forecasts that the anti-aging product represents “a $50 million opportunity” for Isis in the next five years. The company pegged the U.S. skin-care market as a $12 billion industry, including $2.7 billion for wrinkle treatments alone.
“Various studies suggest that Isis’ primary target customer – women aged 39 to 59 years old (which represents 25 million women in the U.S. alone) – currently spends at least $50 to $100 per month on over-the-counter treatments with limited clinical efficacy,” the company said. Biobliss purchased on the Internet (www.biobliss.com) costs $25 for one patch, $45 for two and $75 for a kit with four.
The patch currently is produced in just one shape, intended to cover most of the forehead, but Jordan said Isis already is working on future patches designed to fit the crow’s-feet eye area and the laugh-lines mouth area.
The patch is affixed to the forehead and a button is pushed on a tiny, attached power pack to activate the treatment for one hour. The area treated is not the entire face, but only the forehead directly under the patch. The device stops working on its own after 60 minutes and a micro-controlled light that stops blinking lets the wearer know when treatment is over. Each patch can be used once.
Isis officials said the patch favorably compares with lotions and creams, which they said studies show are not effective, and with invasive, often-painful treatments such as Botox or plastic surgery, which can require extended recovery periods. Botox can cost as much as $700 to $1,000 per treatment, said Niland Mortimer, acting chief marketing officer. A patch user, in comparison, endures no pain and no lingering after-effects, so the device can be used immediately before a major event such as a wedding, they pointed out.
Nonetheless, Jordan stressed development of the cosmetic patch took place using the same carefully documented methods the FDA requires for pharmaceutical use, which could set the stage for a later conversion.
Isis already is working with Dr. Anne De Groot of EpiVax Inc. and Timothy Mather of the University of Rhode Island on what Jordan called “early development” of a transdermal patch to deliver vaccine against tick-related illnesses, such as Lyme disease, funded in part by a $200,000 grant from the R.I. Science and Technology Advisory Council.
Dr. Edward Iannuccilli, a retired physician who formerly chaired the Rhode Island Hospital board of directors and served on the Lifespan board, said the product may prove important not only to Isis but the development of the Knowledge District.
He pointed to Isis’ Richmond Street proximity to Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School, directly across the street, and Rhode Island Hospital, about two blocks away.
“What excites me is, not just the product, but rather as it goes forward, the technology will lend itself to collaborative uses with the scientists across the street [at Warren Alpert] or two streets away [at R.I. Hospital],” he said. “All the technology is there for that collaboration. The possibilities are enormous and, to me, that is what the Knowledge District is all about.” •
