The IMCAS Innovation Shark Tank is a session within IMCAS Annual World Congress that gives an opportunity for startups to pitch their unique solutions in the fields of dermatology, plastic surgery and aesthetic science to a jury of renowned physicians, inventors, investors and industry leaders, who selects the startup with the most innovative solution for the Innovation of the Year Award.

The third edition takes place in 2020.

How did you hear about IMCAS Innovation Shark Tank?

We have quite a few contacts in the industry so as soon as the event was created, it was highly recommended that we participate. But I think the very first time I came across it was on LinkedIn.

Tell us a little bit about your innovative solution you presented on stage.

We’ve developed a novel technology for plastic surgeons to increase the volume of fat cells and fatty tissue, an effect allowing plastic surgeons to model the face and the body with an injection. We do this simply by increasing the volume of the fat cells that are already present there with lipids. It makes the process not only non-surgical but also completely natural – it is the patient’s own tissues that provides the end result.

If you look at fillers in the market, you’re injecting biodegradable material which slowly breaks down or stimulates collagen. None of these products – and actually, no other technology – has figured out the way to target the fat directly and enhance its volume. This is where we came in. We’ve decided to use the body’s own system and all its molecules to enhance volume of fat cells in a targeted, localized way with an injection.

What stage of development was it in when you were presenting?

This is a brand-new technology that doesn’t exist, so we’ve started everything from scratch, from the beginning in the labs so we were at a pre-clinical stage where we had to do a lot of optimizations on the technology, its applications and then test on animal models.

Now we’re reaching the stage where it’s going be tested for the very first time on humans by next summer. Here we are really going to address the mid-facial volume loss.

How would you summarize your experience on stage in one word?

In one word it was amazing.

Getting on stage in front of all these doctors and all these industry representatives, it certainly increases your heart rate. You get a little shot of adrenaline very similar to going down a ski slope very fast.

Are there any new developments that took place for your product since your presentation?

Yes! When we started, we were really doing the development looking at it from the European perspective. Since then, or actually right when IMCAS happened, we got accepted into the Stanford Startup Accelerator, and we really started putting equal focus on developing our activities in Europe and in the US to conduct a clinical testing in both regions to get it approved in both markets hopefully around the period in time. We’re aiming for 2022.

I must say also, as a startup, everything takes a bit longer than we expect or plan for, especially when you’re coming with a brand-new technology where you have to scale it up in manufacturing. You have to define all the manufacturing steps, quality controls and ensure that you are fully compliant with the FDA (in the US) and the EMA in Europe. So, we’ve been spending a lot of time since winning at IMCAS really implementing all those processes to make sure that once we start the first clinical test, we do so with the final product, the exact same product that’s going to be in the market and approved later on. We absolutely cannot change any single parameter in the production and the manufacturing process of this product. To do that we have to go back and start from the clinical trials. So, it takes a huge amount of planning, input from a lot of different experts on both sides of the Atlantic, and that’s a lot of what has been happening in our development.

On a final note, our patent has been granted in 8 countries: the US, Japan, South Korea and China’s on the way… we’re really happy that we got absolutely every single application it is a patent of technology first for the face, but it will be tested very soon on the body as well, with large volumes, to remodel and reshape different areas.

So things have move along a lot since your presentation.

Yes, yes, we’ve been moving forward quite a lot. We also just had a half million innovation grant approved by the Chinese government. There’s also a very strong interest in China for this technology and getting it approved over there, so we’re also kick-starting developments and tests in China.

If you could give some advice to the startups that will be presenting during the Innovation Shark Tank 2020, what would it be?

That’s an excellent question. One thing is, try to keep the message simple. And it’s sometimes difficult when you have a lot of science and technology behind it, but you want to make it easily understandable for everybody in the audience. The second thing is, you also want to make it exciting. Highlight the application: Why would people want to use it? What makes it so much better than the current solutions that exist? That would be my advice.

What was another concurrent, innovative product(s) on stage that caught your attention during your participation in Innovation Shark Tank?

It’s actually a French company, IRISIOME? I hope I’m pronouncing that right. They developed a very novel type of laser. It’s based on delivering ultra-short pulses at a very high repetition rate. It makes the process of removing a tattoo or certain marks on the skin a lot less painful and more efficient, though it is challenging to take this new technology and adapt it to the business environment in place compared to other lasers. But I’m hoping they can bring it to market!