Making a difference
Monday, March 28, 2005 1:09 PM PST
Co-founder of skin care firm keeps focus on creating a quality product
Christen McCurdy - Argus Observer
Fruitland - Of the 70 botanical compounds being marketed as "cosmoceuticals," eight have been proven effective in clinical trials, Dr. Carl Thornfeldt, M.D., said.
"It's hard to say what's real and what's right," Thornfeldt said.
Cosmoceuticals are nonprescription products that are believed to modulate skin appearance and superficial structure, he said, and they include items such as wrinkle creams or acne treatments.
For the most part cosmoceuticals are not subject to studies by the Food and Drug Administration.
Few of the companies that market cosmoceuticals subject their products to unbiased clinical trial, Thornfeldt added, which means consumers have no information as to whether they are helpful or harmful.
"We as consumers are being asked to believe in voodoo science," Thornfeldt said, adding he believes physicians have a responsibility to make sure products consumers use actually work - and he has put his money where his mouth is.
Thornfeldt is the cofounder of Epionce, a company that makes skin care products he said improve skin appearance in seven areas: fine lines, appearance of wrinkles, skin tactile roughness, skin elasticity, sun spots, skin clarity, sun sensitivity, and actinic keratosis. Results are comparable to prescription products but have fewer side effects, he said.
He added where many skin care products are tested in-house, if at all, Epionce's products are sent out for independent clinical trials in a process similar to the one the FDA requires to approve medications.
Epionce products are already available at Thornfeldt's office as well as at many area pharmacies and salons - and this spring Epionce is releasing three more products.
The new products - currently under testing - include two sunscreens and a nourishing cream.
"This is the first cosmoceutical specifically for the Intermountain area," Thornfeldt said. Specifically the target market is people who are outdoors in the sun a great deal.
"You can develop quality products that actually work," Thornfeldt said. "It depends on where you want to spend your resources."
Thornfeldt said he began researching the ways in which the outer layer of the skin works and trying to figure out why it is so difficult to deliver antioxidants and vitamins to the skin's outer layer.
"The outer skin is the layer that forms a barrier between an aqueous body and a terrestrial, or dry environment," Thornfeldt said. "It allows us to live in this world."
During his research he discovered a delivery system that taps into the ways in which the skin naturally heals and protects itself - offering longterm safety, he said.
