'Biocosmetics' emerges as next growth engine for K-beauty

Drug development technologies and pharmaceutical and biotech research assets are flowing rapidly into the cosmetics industry, positioning "biocosmetics" as the next-generation growth engine for K-beauty.

The strategy aims to sidestep the limitations of traditional drug development — which requires years of clinical trials and regulatory approvals — by leveraging verified safety profiles and high-performance functional data to achieve rapid commercialization and global market expansion at the same time.

The Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization held the 2026 Biocosmetics Media Day on Thursday at the Novotel Ambassador in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, spotlighting business opportunities and commercialization cases for biocosmetics developed outside the conventional drug pipeline.

The event featured pharmaceutical-backed cosmetics brands that have used pharmaceutical-grade, high-purity ingredients to achieve mega-hit results, with cumulative global sales surpassing 100 billion won ($74.6 million).

Dongkook Pharmaceutical bridged its wound-care drug Madecassol to the cosmetics market in 2015 by applying its titrated extract of Centella asiatica (TECA) — the active ingredient in the medicine — to launch the Centellian24 brand.

Park Song-hee, head of product planning at Dongkook Pharmaceutical, said wild Centella asiatica is hand-harvested from pristine regions of Madagascar, subjected to more than 250 quality tests in Germany, and then refined through a seven-stage purification process to yield pure powdered TECA, which the company applies exclusively. "Our flagship Madeca Cream has surpassed cumulative sales of 100 million units, and we are also seeing results in global markets — recently ranking fifth in the moisturizer category and first in the eye treatment category on Amazon in the United States," Park said.

DN Cosmetics, an affiliate of Daewoong Pharma, disclosed the earnings of its Easydew brand, which is built around DW-EGF — South Korea's first biotech-derived new drug ingredient and a compound registered under the World Health Organization's International Nonproprietary Name system.

Lee Ji-hye, head of DN Cosmetics' business division, said the company handles ingredients according to three principles — identical-to-human-body structure, a 229-nanometer nano-liposome delivery method, and insistence on pharmaceutical-grade purity — rooted in the pharmaceutical philosophy of never launching a product that does not work. "Our melasma ampoule, tailored to customers' skin concerns, has recorded cumulative sales of 90 billion won, and our four-tone melasma cushion, which both covers and treats melasma, has surpassed 100 billion won," Lee said.

Lee added that the EGFX downtime care line — designed to support skin recovery after damage and launched in April this year — generated 5 billion won in its first six months and is set to enter Sephora in the United States next year.

CHA Meditech, an affiliate of CHA Biogroup, shared stem-cell research achievements accumulated since 2008. Lee Seong-jin, executive vice president of CHA Meditech, said the company faced setbacks in the early days of commercializing embryonic stem-cell culture media due to unclear Ministry of Food and Drug Safety guidelines, but from 2016 onward established a proprietary technology that differentiates adult stem cells — cord stem cells — into epidermal stem cells over three to four weeks. "Through an industry-academia-hospital ecosystem with CHA Hospital's dermatology department, we identified the skin-barrier-strengthening effect of Nidogen, a key active protein in stem-cell culture media, and applied it to our cosmetics brand Evercell," Lee said.

Drug development ventures are also expanding into the beauty market by leveraging the mechanisms of action in their existing pipelines. NovMetaPharma is developing a skin-cell regeneration skin booster using the mitochondrial function improvement — specifically ATP production — and anti-inflammatory mechanisms of a synthetic CLIC1-inhibiting peptide originally under development as a treatment for rare hereditary muscle diseases. Novacell Technology, meanwhile, is developing trouble-care cosmetics and a next-generation collagen filler based on pro-resolution peptides validated in its atopic dermatitis and dry-eye disease pipelines.

A major cosmetics company laid out strict criteria for translating biotech into products. Park Won-seok, senior vice president of advanced research at Amorepacific R&I, said biotech must be a means of demonstrating real value to customers, not merely a label for advertising. "The difference between a technology at an interesting discovery stage and one that actually becomes a product lies in whether there is a clear mechanism of action and human clinical evidence," Park said.

Park outlined five criteria cosmetics companies use when selecting biotech: a clear target and mechanism of action; human application trials and skin biomarker validation beyond the molecular and cellular level; skin penetration rate, formulation stability and mass-production viability; absolute safety; and meaningful efficacy differentiation compared with existing technologies.

Park predicted that the market will be led by high-performance derma products combining skin longevity — a comprehensive approach to all 14 hallmarks of aging alongside strengthening the skin's own regenerative capacity — with AI-driven bioinformatics technology.

Lee Seung-gyu, vice chairman of the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization, said there has clearly been a limitation in that cosmetics made with truly excellent compounds developed by ventures have struggled to reach their potential because they cannot find the right marketers. "We will support innovative technologies in successfully establishing themselves in the market and facilitate close communication among industry players, media and influencers," Lee said.