DeepVerge upbeat on performance of new Labskin service

(Sharecast News) - DeepVerge said on Friday that its new research and development service, launched in August, had generated £0.4m in completed sales in the fourth quarter, with agreements with 10 new clients that had not previously used Labskin services.
The AIM-traded firm said the agreements include framework master services agreements with two of the world's largest suppliers of consumer products related to skincare.

It said the new service, designed to rapidly validate the impact of ingredients such as probiotics and prebiotics on the skin microbiome, cloned the human skin microbiome using six microbial strains, and delivered "real world" environment results that mirror the impact of treatments and therapeutics on real human skin.

The new service added to its existing client offering, increasing revenue per client and delivering higher value test services on ingredients used in an expansive range of products, the board explained, from antivirals to shampoos and babies' nappies.

It said the service replicated skin conditions of the scalp, face, mouth and abdomen, and also made use of artificial intelligence (AI), which had "significantly improved" the speed and accuracy of testing ingredients on virtual skin models.

"When we designed this new service we built on three key platforms - Labskin's ability to grow human skin, its expertise in replicating the skin's microbial environment from different parts of the body and its increasing use of AI and data which helps with speed, accuracy and insights," said chief executive officer Gerard Brandon.

"While we will fully launch the product at conferences across all regions in 2021, it has already resulted in significant interest and orders from existing and new clients as well as from new clients in new sectors [and] markets."

Brandon said the Labskin division had become a "recognised global leader" in cloning and testing real-world human skin microbiome in a laboratory with a rapidly-expanding order book from a growing blue chip client base.

"Since September 2019, the team has increased revenue per client exponentially by offering multiple value-added solutions beyond its core laboratory testing services which lower client development costs of product information validation enabling new products to get to market faster."

At 1152 GMT, shares in DeepVerge were up 2.13% at 24p.