Nippon Shokubai works with Summit

Nippon Shokubai and its Japanese compatriot Summit Cosmetics, a subsidiary of Sumitomo, have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding for the joint development and sales of next-generation personal care ingredient fields. Both are initially investigating new film forming agents and thickeners, including biopolymers.

The combination will be based on Nippon Shokubai’s R&D capabilities and technologies in the fields of synthesis, polymerisation and catalyst processing. Summit, meanwhile, will be using its global sales and marketing network to identify market and customer needs.

Nippon Shokubai has targeted personal care ingredients as one of the new business areas in its second medium-term business plan, ‘Reborn Nippon Shokubai 2020 NEXT’, which began in 2017. The company will address such trends as whitening/brightening, anti-pollution and anti-ageing in skin care; the ‘Clean Beauty’ trend towards sustainable and safe ingredients, that are gentle to the skin; and, ingredients to prevent viruses, PM 2.5, pollen and other substances from adhering to the skin and hair; and natural ingredients with antibacterial activities.