The Medicalization of Beauty with Rion Aesthetics

Speaker 1:
Welcome to TD Cowen Insights, a space that brings leading thinkers together to share insights and ideas shaping the world around us. Join us as we converse with the top minds who are influencing our global sectors.
Oliver Chen:
Transforming the regenerative aesthetics market, a medicalization of beauty, skincare. We're really excited to have this podcast. I'm here with the Retail Visionary Podcast Series, a podcast about visionary ideas and people. I'm Oliver Chen, TD Cowen's retail and luxury analyst, here with Alisa Lask, the CEO of Rion Aesthetics. We're recording this live at One Vanderbilt in New York ahead of TD Cowen's Glowing Ahead beauty industry cocktail event. In this episode, we'll explore the convergence of wellness and beauty and the core competencies of Rion Aesthetics, which is a regenerative aesthetics company pioneering the use of platelet-derived exosome technology for hair restoration and facial wrinkles.
Today we're thrilled to feature Alisa Lask, CEO of Rion Aesthetics. Alisa has a proven track record of leading complex organizations in aesthetic, clinical, and cosmetic sectors, through leadership roles at Galderma, Allergan, Zimmer, and Eli Lilly. Most recently Alisa led aesthetics at Galderma as VP and general manager in the U.S. And during her tenure, she oversaw 10 FDA approvals and several Salesforce expansions. Alisa, it's great to have you here.
Alisa Lask:
Thanks for having me.
Oliver Chen:
So what is Rion Aesthetics? What do you stand for? How is it different and what am I talking about in terms of medicalization of skincare?
Alisa Lask:
Yeah, those are wonderful questions, and it's a really big hot topic now because I think everyone's really looking for things that have results. And so at Rion Aesthetics, we are really pioneering the use of human-derived ingredients in skincare. So for so many years, we've put chemicals on our face, we've put plant-derived ingredients on our face, but we never were able to really harness the power of the human body and the power to heal and renew the skin. And science has finally caught up to the fact that we can have it in a stabilized ingredient that we can use every day in our skincare.
Oliver Chen:
Why should we be using human-derived? What does that mean?
Alisa Lask:
So human-derived means the source is human. So we're actually sourcing ours from platelets that are donated at blood banks across the U.S. This is transfusion-grade platelets. And there's a power in these platelets. If you think about it, when you slice your hand, the first responder to that wound, what is it? You see the blood, the platelets. So there's a very unique ability in these platelets to renew the skin.
Oliver Chen:
And how did this all start? We all care about results. And will this drive results? Why is it better?
Alisa Lask:
So this is based on 15 years of science and over $150 million of research for cardiac patients. So our founders were working to study patients that were having heart attacks and using regenerative medicine. They're internationally recognized in the regenerative medicine fields. And what they were noticing early on is, as they were studying these heart attack patients when they were in the lab and they were wearing gloves, and we all get irritated when we wear these latex gloves. They were putting this platelet extract, this human exosome on their hands, and they were noticing the skin was getting better. And they said, "Hey, wait a minute. We probably have something here as it relates to skincare." And they went off and started formulating new products.
Oliver Chen:
Tell us about your pioneering product (plated) and what it's all about and how you're thinking about your assortment at large.
Alisa Lask:
Yeah. So our hero SKU is (plated) INTENSE. It's a daily serum. We did clinical trials and showed results as early as six weeks, and really good in terms of all the things that we're looking for relative to anti-aging properties. So this is kind of a does it all. It's almost like smart technology. It's not just one thing, it really helps eliminate a lot of things that we use in skincare.
Oliver Chen:
I use it daily. I'm really happy with what it does. What about the clinical results? What are they? How do you think about efficacy?
Alisa Lask:
This is a new technology and we really wanted to put it through the test. So we picked a very well-known institutional place in Rochester, Minnesota to do our studies to make sure they're really good clinical studies. And we didn't do five or seven patients, which you see in a lot of these studies. We actually did a large group of patients, 60 patients. We looked at them over six months. We actually did histology. So we were trying to see what was happening, not just on the surface of the skin, but under the skin. And we saw the most exciting results were just the luminosity of the skin, that brightness, the texture, the tone. But we saw brown spot reduction, we saw reduction in wrinkles, and then underneath the skin, we saw improvement in collagen and elastin.
Oliver Chen:
What are your thoughts about distribution and how you should approach this and what's happening there?
Alisa Lask:
So the original strategy when I met the founders was we could just go to retail with this. And I really convinced them from having a medical aesthetics background and working in the medical aesthetics business with injectables that we needed to take this technology that was very complicated, people didn't know what exosomes were, and use the distribution through physicians and aesthetic medical providers. So right now we're focused on selling through these aesthetic medical providers across the country.
Oliver Chen:
What is a medical aesthetics field? We see ten-year-olds at Sephora, everybody knows Ulta as well. How would you compare and contrast what you mean by medical aesthetics?
Alisa Lask:
Yeah. So these are where a doctor is in charge and overseeing, whether it's a medical spa, plastic surgeon, a dermatologist, but where there's a medical provider. And maybe there's nurse practitioners and estheticians below them, but there is a medical overlay to the clinic.
Oliver Chen:
What do you see happening where there's TikTokification of retail and community building and influencers? How might that intersect with medical aesthetics or not?
Alisa Lask:
So we're seeing a big intersection in terms of the office staff on TikTok doing the education. So you're seeing nurses and nurse practitioners and doctors really helping to educate what are exosomes, why should I be incorporating exosomes into my daily skincare.
Oliver Chen:
Can you do a TikTok for us? What are exosomes?
Alisa Lask:
Absolutely. So exosomes are simply a message in a bottle. It's the messages that we have from cell to cell in your body, and you have thousands of exosomes, thousands of messages, and the one we're using is the message for renewal. So you think about you want to renew your skin and improve your skin, that's what we have.
Oliver Chen:
How do you find that message?
Alisa Lask:
Well, that's why the science has taken so many years to catch up to us. They really had to understand how you found out what the best source was. And what we realized was you can get exosomes many different ways. You may hear about all kinds of different sources, but platelets have a unique ability to produce a high quantity of these regenerative exosomes.
Oliver Chen:
And what was she using previously when she or he may switch to (plated)? What's the nature of your competition?
Alisa Lask:
So most of our consumers were using a higher-end growth factor, but really that's older technology. If you think about growth factors, it's one letter of the alphabet, the exosome is the full alphabet to the cell. And that's why this is so new and so innovative. You don't need to have 50 different bottles in front of you at your counter, you can really use this exosome technology to do a lot of things.
Oliver Chen:
Growth factors sounds both scary and interesting for people who've never heard of it. What does that mean?
Alisa Lask:
So simply growth factors is just... Again, there's something, a receptor outside the cell that encourages the cells to do certain things. Like I said, it's just one message, not the whole message. And there is some negative part of growth factors. There have been reports of people that have cancer that may have increased because the growth factors were telling the cells to turn over.
Oliver Chen:
And why do we get the full alphabet with-
Alisa Lask:
So the interesting thing about exosomes, it actually goes into the cell as it sends the signal. So if you think about message in the bottle, that message is going into the cell. The cell is accepting the message, and so that's why you're getting that broader effect. You're not just taking a receptor on the outside.
Oliver Chen:
As a leader, how are you balancing growth and profitability?
Alisa Lask:
For us, I think the priority is educating. We want this technology to be seen as legitimate. And the problem is right now, exosomes is a really hot word and there's a lot of charlatans. So we're trying to make sure people understand you have to do good science, you have to do studies, and that you just can't make exosomes in your garage. This has taken 15 years to figure out how to stabilize. These exosomes are not something that are very just shelf stable. And so it takes a lot of work and technology to get this to where it is in a skincare.
Oliver Chen:
What's the hardest part of exosomes? And as you educate people, what are some key points that you're trying to make?
Alisa Lask:
So exosomes like a certain environment. And so we tell people when you start with our skincare and (plated) Skin Science, you should put it on after you clean your skin. There's so many ingredients in your sunscreen, your makeup, all the things, your hairspray that you're using that may interact and actually destroy the exosomes. So we tell people to put it on first, let it dry, and then you can add any of the other products that you're doing. Because again, these exosomes, they have an environment that they like to be in, and we don't know what's going to happen with all the other things.
Oliver Chen:
So what other aspects of educating everybody about exosomes is important and why are there charlatans?
Alisa Lask:
Well, there's charlatans because the space is hot. I mean, we can barely keep up with manufacturing. We had to expand to a 12,000 square foot manufacturing plant in Rochester, Minnesota. People want new technology. And when you go into an aesthetic provider, you don't sit down and say, "Hey, tell me about the old stuff." You sit down and say, "Hey, what's new? What else can I be doing to really help my skin?" And this has been a really hot topic because there's been this breakthrough, this discovery in science, and I think everyone is jumping onto that bandwagon.
Oliver Chen:
Alisa, we've seen plant-derived exosomes, how is that different from human-derived?
Alisa Lask:
Yeah, we get that question a lot. So it's interesting. You can't have plant exosomes that actually talk to human cells. There's no data published that does that. If you have a plant exosome, it's just like eating a carrot. You're just getting the nutrients, but you're not actually getting that breakthrough discovery in science that we talked about that's actually human cell-to-cell communication.
Oliver Chen:
When you think about distribution in this big opportunity and the efficacy, why don't you go direct to consumer? What might happen?
Alisa Lask:
So I think for us, we could go direct to consumer, but I think we really wanted to spend time educating, legitimizing the space and not just make this all about marketing and hype. We wanted to be authentic. We named the brand (plated) because we wanted to embrace the fact that platelets were our source material, not hide behind it. We wanted to be authentic with consumers to say, this is the studies, this is how it works, not just have marketing hype and celebrities out there and paying for pay-per-clicks and things like that. We're really doing education through medical aesthetic providers.
Oliver Chen:
And community is a big theme. How does community play into your vision for awareness and marketing?
Alisa Lask:
So I think it's important. We are still not embracing that as much as we could be. I think it's going to be an opportunity for us in the future. Right now we're just trying to still do the basic building blocks of building a startup. We're only a few years into this.
Oliver Chen:
What would you compare this exome and platelet revolution today to things in the past? Are there any compelling analogies?
Alisa Lask:
Well, I'm hoping if you and I are sitting here in three to five years that we start talking about platelet-derived exosomes as the gold standard for skincare like we did retinol.
Oliver Chen:
That will be quite revolutionary. Retinol was really, really impactful.
Alisa Lask:
Absolutely.
Oliver Chen:
What would you say are your bigger challenges ahead in terms of prioritizing the growth and opportunity?
Alisa Lask:
I think the biggest challenge is just helping people understand why they need to incorporate exosomes into their skincare, and then explaining to them why having a human-derived, platelet-sourced exosome is the best one to have.
Oliver Chen:
Another framework we talk a lot about is customer lifetime value, and obviously, retention is so important. How do you think about retention and maximizing LTV?
Alisa Lask:
So that's important. And that's the good news is we have really high retention rates. Our reorder rates are above average for the industry. And we are just starting to grow. I mean, we only have a few SKUs now and there's a lot of other areas we're getting suggestions on. And so I think as we evolve the company and grow, there's a lot of untapped potential.
Oliver Chen:
What about your technology Renewosome technology? What does that actually mean?
Alisa Lask:
So that's our proprietary platelet-derived exosome technology. So we're the first, and we're the only company that will be able to deliver exosomes via platelets. That's our patent. So there is no one else that can tell you that except us. And that's again why the company's called (plated). So we really embrace that platelet-derived exosome. That's the differentiation.
Oliver Chen:
Alisa, how are you thinking about product over time and the assortment and the hero SKUs relative to opportunities here?
Alisa Lask:
So right now INTENSE is our hero SKU. I think the biggest mistake I've seen from a lot of startups is that you try to get too many SKUs too fast and you lose selling the science. So our focus is really going to be on a few SKUs now, really selling the science, legitimizing the space, legitimizing exosomes, and making sure we're credible source and we can be seen as the leader in the space.
Oliver Chen:
What about your supply chain? You mentioned that earlier, it can be a competitive advantage and it's really important for many reasons. What's your approach to that and capital allocation relative to speed and control?
Alisa Lask:
So we're doing all of our manufacturing in Rochester, Minnesota. We do have an outside fill-finish, but we're going to be bringing a lot of that in-house. So we're really trying to own that process. I think it's important that we want to be transparent. When you're sourcing biologic ingredients from humans, it's really important that you own the process. So you make sure you understand from when it comes in, to when it goes out the door that you're giving consumers the ingredient that they're looking for.
Oliver Chen:
Which part of this job is most fun for you?
Alisa Lask:
I love paving a new way, a new space, and building a legacy in aesthetics. No one has done this. Like I said, we're the first and we're the only product. And so I love the fact that two years I can look back and see what we've done and really carving a niche for ourselves.
Oliver Chen:
And what do you see as you zoom out the future of beauty, the future of skincare? How might aesthetics continue to evolve in the next 10 years?
Alisa Lask:
So I think we're going to still see this convergence of beauty and health. People want results. They want things that have science behind them, they want things that have clinical studies behind them, and then, of course, things that work. And so that's why I've spent much of my career in healthcare. And you do big clinical studies, you don't just do one or two patients and take some photos and say, "Hey, this is a great product." And I think you're seeing a lot more of that coming into the beauty space and consumers being educated and understanding and asking questions. How many patients were in that study? How often did they apply it? Just really understanding the ways that you can get clinical results without doing a good clinical study.
Oliver Chen:
As we zoom out and consumers think about this, what should they be asking about studies in general?
Alisa Lask:
Yeah, I think they should be asking, again, what we talked about, how many patients were in the study, what were the sites that did the study, are these good institutional research sites, are these marketing sites that are just trying to sell and hype and make money out of it. And then really understanding is there statistical significance in the results because that's a big difference. In pharmaceutical studies, you don't get FDA approval without that. And I think we need to bring that into the beauty space and not say, "Oh, 2 out of 10 said this." That's not good enough.
Oliver Chen:
Yeah. And Rion has some amazing partnerships. Could you speak to them and how they've driven some of your core competencies?
Alisa Lask:
Yeah, absolutely. So the company was founded focused on medical, and so we have three different divisions of the company. Rion Medical, the company just filed an IND for knee osteoarthritis. They're in phase 2 FDA studies for wound healing. They have two grants with the Department of Defense. So the medical side of exosomes is incredible. But right now today, there is no FDA-approved exosome. And I think that's really important because there are people out there trying to inject exosomes. They're trying to do all these things in aesthetics, and these things are not approved. So the only thing people should be doing in aesthetics now is topical exosomes.
Oliver Chen:
And you bring up a good point. There's a lot of information online. Would you recommend consumers or listeners, how do we dissect so much noise in terms of being safe and efficacious?
Alisa Lask:
Yeah. It's interesting because a lot of the media now, you're actually getting paid to do some of the articles, that they pay if you click on things.
Oliver Chen:
Yeah, you can't tell all the time at all.
Alisa Lask:
Yeah. So I think the thing is to really focus on the healthcare providers. So if you're in a local area, your dermatologist or plastic surgeon, people that are writing articles, those are the people that are going to be focusing on the science and the data.
Oliver Chen:
The other hot topic amongst the C-suite is ten-year-olds with skincare routines. What should parents and others be thinking about? What should leaders be thinking about ethically?
Alisa Lask:
So I think that's where we really need to make sure the kids aren't focusing on those things. There's other things to focus at that age, and we don't need to be selling skincare to children. Even in aesthetics, I saw people getting Botox and things at a very young age. And so I think that's us as the manufacturers really to make sure our marketing isn't targeting or in some way encouraging these young children to use things they don't need to be doing.
Oliver Chen:
Your background in aesthetics is quite differentiated and special. What do you see happening with the demographics of attractiveness, of aesthetics to the population at large? The beauty enthusiast is quite ethnic, quite young.
Alisa Lask:
So it's been normalizing over time. So if you think about right now, only about 7% of the population is actually in medical aesthetics. There's tens of millions of patients that haven't entered, that are still interested. So I think it's going to continue to grow. I mean, if I even think back when I first started working on some of these big brands, Botox, Juvederm, people didn't even want to talk about it at the dinner table. Forget Thanksgiving with your family, you were embarrassed. Now people speak openly about it. There's not so much stigma. I think the stigma is around people that get bad injections or bad procedures, but I see it normalizing more. Years ago, women didn't dye their hair, it wasn't accepted. Now it's almost unacceptable to not dye your hair and have gray hair. So I think I see aesthetics moving that direction that most people, whether they're doing injections or they're doing laser treatment, these things are going to become much more accepted.
Oliver Chen:
The word medical aesthetics makes me think it's really expensive. Well, how much is your product and how are you thinking about the cost of these items and indoor procedures at large with this field?
Alisa Lask:
So our costs are similar to most of the other products that are in the office. The thing is, a lot of consumers buy so many things, and if you actually add up all the things that you're working and it's not actually doing anything, you really could be so much better just buying one product from your physician's office that's actually working.
Oliver Chen:
And what do you see happening over time with innovation meets exomes regarding hair care, body care? Many abundant opportunities, I imagine.
Alisa Lask:
Yeah, so Rion Aesthetics has two platforms for our company. One is the cosmetic side, which is (plated) Skin Science. The other is our FDA arm. So we've licensed the right to use these FDA-grade exosomes, the same ones we talked about in those clinical trials, now on the medical side for aesthetic cash pay uses. So we are pursuing injectable FDA-grade exosomes for hair loss as well as wrinkles. So if you think about the dermal filler market now in the U.S. is 1.5 billion. It's growing at high single digits. This is a big market, but you're just filling lips, you're filling cheeks, people look like Daffy Duck. Can we use regenerative aesthetics instead to do injections but are actually signaling your cells to produce younger, healthier cells? This whole zombie cells, the cellular senescence is a very hot topic. And so our hope is that we will pursue these investigational studies with the FDA to be able to say, "Hey, you can use these injections and actually reduce your cellular senescence, reduce those aging of the cells."
Oliver Chen:
Yeah, we don't want to look like Daffy Duck. That's for sure.
Alisa Lask:
We don't want to look like Daffy Duck, yeah.
Oliver Chen:
What do you mean by zombie cells?
Alisa Lask:
So zombie cells are actually your cells that they senesce, they actually go to sleep and then they age. A great analogy is, if you have a rotten apple and you put it in a jar with other apples, what happens? Over time those other apples start to rot. So it's similar to aging cells. If you have one cell that's starting to age, it almost starts telling the cells around it, start aging as well. And what you want to do is you want those cells that are aging to stop aging. And so I think that's the holy grail. And we're hoping that these FTA-grade exosomes will be able to produce an injectable for wrinkles, for collagen, for elastin, and for reducing this zombie cells or cellular senescence.
Oliver Chen:
Wow. So we covered a lot of amazing topics about how to look better, feel better, and change science in your favor in terms of aging and skincare. In closing, what's least well understood? Any closing remarks you may have as well, Alisa?
Alisa Lask:
I think the least understood thing in skincare is that you actually don't need to have a ton of products. There really are solutions out there that can provide a one simple thing. I'm not a complex person. I don't like to have lots of things that I'm doing. And I think this is a great solution that can really simplify someone's skincare routine.
Oliver Chen:
Well, that's a great note. Less is more. Also, this integration of medicalization and effectiveness and this topic of exomes, which is sure to be with us for a long time. Thanks for your time. It's a pleasure.
Alisa Lask:
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for joining us. Stay tuned for the next episode of TD Cowen Insights.

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