Jacques Vernin, president of FACOPHAR Santé – the French association representing companies involved in the natural and herbal health space, explains its role and the future of the organization in participating in social dialogue, shaping regulations and promoting French excellence in the field of herbal ingredients.   Could you please introduce yourself and the role that FACOPHAR plays in the French lifesciences ecosystem? I am a pharmacist by trade and I spent my early years developing the family company, Laboratoire Vernin, founded in the beginning of the 20^th century by my grandfather. Its production was mainly pharmaceutical, with a focus on herbal extracts, biological products and all kinds of gallenical formulations. We used to sell to customers from all over the world and had two production sites abroad, one in Poland and the other in Brazil. It was a very successful company until the Second World War, after which Laboratoire Vernin was converted to a pharmaceutical subcontractor manufacturer. After my father’s death in 1967, I was called by the family to take the reins of the company, which at that time had a turnover of 20 million French Francs. Before that, as a student, I started experimenting in the use of herbal extracts in cosmetics. At the time, I consulted Mr DeLobelle, head of research at Dior and professor at the Collège de France. He had little faith in the development of herbal ingredients in cosmetics, as he considered them bacteriologically heavy, associated with a high sensitization risk and useless in cosmetics. I managed to change his mind by developing new technologies and clinical studies. Finally I got the greenlight to produce and promote under the Phytélènes trademark. Soon, all the major cosmetic players were clients (Dior, Guerlain, Hermes, Estée Lauder, Avon, Revlon, Shiseido, Pola, Pacific and many others). When I left the company in the 1990s, our turnover was 226 million French Francs. Greentech bought Phythélènes. Now I am president of the association FACOPHAR Santé. Established as a Union in the 19^th century, FACOPHAR Santé is an organization that gathers all of the actors involved in the field of herbal remedies. Our main aim is to promote the French excellence and to lobby on the technical/regulatory side of things as experts in botanicals, both at the European and French level.   How has FACOPHAR Santé contributed to advancing French and European regulations in the very specific field of natural and herbal remedies? Our role is both about shaping regulation and helping companies adhere to and succeed among the regulation. We want to be present in Europe, with a structure capable of gathering companies at a European level. FACOPHAR Santé in Europe is not heard because we are French. The only way to really influence EU regulation is through continental unity, to essentially do the same we are doing in France but at the international scale. For example, Europe has banned tests on animals without proposing any alternative methods for our members. We gathered all the herbal extracts producers to propose a new regulatory approach to bring our contribution to “European experts”. Our European branch UNITIS launched a project proposing a predictive method to ensure safety of natural ingredients: the project is called NCSTOX (Safety evaluation of molecules present in Natural Complex Substances). It is based on in silico models, text mining and identification by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, which analyzes all of the compounds of a complex extract and identifies the presence and concentration of toxical substances. Basically, it helps to evaluate whether or not to use an extract and identifies the risks that come with it. In this way, it is possible to avoid several tests while innovating quickly, as the cosmetic industry is very hungry for new natural ingredients. We are promoting companies that have a high level of research capacity and efficacy, elevating the “natural ingredients” label from a simple marketing aspect to clinical efficacy.

We are promoting companies that have a high level of research capacity and efficacy, elevating the “natural ingredients” label from a simple marketing aspect to clinical efficacy