Anti-wrinkle link may boost AHA sales - alpha hydroxy acids

Discount Store News, Sept 16, 1996 by Lisa I. Fried

A new study about the efficacy of alpha hydroxy acids could give this skin care segment a sales boost.

The study, which surprised the Massachusetts General Hospital researchers who conducted it, concluded that creams with 8 percent glycolic acid and 8 percent lactic acid (both alpha hydroxy acids) are modestly useful in reducing the signs of skin aging that are brought on by sun exposure and other environmental factors.

In what they believe was the first peer-reviewed, controlled, randomized, double blind study of its kind, researchers at Massachusetts General examined whether low level concentrations [8 percent] of AHAs improve the appearance of aging skin. Pond's Age Defying Complex was the AHA-based product used in the study, but many skin care products on the market today contain the same level of alpha hydroxy acids--8 percent.

Seventy-four women from age 40 to 70 with moderately photo-damaged skin participated. The study showed that a greater proportion of participants using the AHAs creams reduced the overall signs of photo-aging, compared with those using the vehicle cream (the same cream without acids). More than 70 percent of those participants using AHAs on the face showed a one-to-two point reduction in photodamage symptoms, while only 41 percent of those using the vehicle cream showed a similar improvement. Signs of aging include discoloration, wrinkling, loss of firmness, sallowness, appearance of tiny blood vessels and roughness.

The AHA creams also produced significantly superior overall improvement on the forearms than the vehicle cream.

"There have been a lot of claims made about the lower-strength concentrations [of AHAs] found in cosmetic products that had not [previously] been backed up by properly conducted clinical studies," said Dr. Lynn Drake, a dermatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, who led the study. "Clearly our work needs to be verified by other investigators, and we need to look at other formulations and concentrations of these products to see what subtle differences might emerge. But I think we have answered a fundamental question--do low levels of alpha hydroxy acids produce visible improvements statistically superior to those of the vehicle cream alone? And the answer is `yes.' "

The study was funded in part by Unilever, the parent of Chesebrough-Pond's, which markets Pond's Age Defying Complex. Massachusetts General's researchers maintained sole responsibility for the design and implementation of the study.

Chesebrough-Pond's has been promoting the study in advertisements in several consumer magazines since July. In October and November, the company plans to install shelf talkers about the study in 8,800 drug stores. The company believes that the study has affected the share maintained by its Age Defying products. It reports that from June to July, dollar share points for Pond's Age Defying Cream increased from 1 to 1.4, and dollar share points for Age Defying Lotion increased from 0.8 to 1.1.

Mark Goldstein, president of Neoteric Cosmetics, claims that sales of his company's core Alpha Hydrox facial treatment items jumped 60 percent in discount stores and drug stores when the study was released in June. During the past few months, the study has received press coverage in USA Today and other media. Since then sales of the items have come down from that sales gain but were still up over last year as of August, according to Goldstein.