BioIVT, a provider of biospecimens and related services, is launching a new line of products and services to improve safety, efficacy and toxicity testing for skin care products, cosmetics and topical medications.

“As the demand for personal skin care products increases—whether they are applied for anti-aging, hydration, wound healing or UV protection purposes—so does the need for better safety, efficacy and toxicity testing systems. The same holds true for new cosmetics and topical medications,” said Dr. Christopher Black, senior vice president of ADME-Tox at BioIVT. “At BioIVT, we are endeavoring to provide researchers in those fields with biological systems that allow them to more clearly understand the disposition of topical applications and their effects on normal and disease-affected skin.”

BioIVT now provides a wide range of skin products for safety, efficacy and toxicity testing. They include control tissue; disease-state skin punches for acne, atopic dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis and vitiligo; primary cell lines, such adipocytes, fibroblasts, keratinocytes, and melanocytes; and subcellular solutions. It also provides custom processing of skin samples and DNA/RNA extraction.

In addition, the company offers cell-based assay services. BioIVT works with a range of primary and immortalized skin cell lines and is able to produce high quality, phenotypically-relevant data. Its assays assess a variety of cell responses including cell toxicity, mitochondrial dysfunction, cell proliferation (ATP/MTT), oxidative stress and DNA damage.