Life After... biotech winter: CellResearch Corp goes from zero to $25m revenue in just 4 years

SINGAPORE – Singapore-based biotech company CellResearch Corp found itself caught in the depths of a biotech winter following a massive pandemic-driven surge in 2020.

As Covid-19 spread rapidly across the globe and countries went into lockdown, funding priorities shifted sharply.

To ensure not only the survival of the company, but also that of its technology, CellResearch moved away from its core focus of using stem cell technology to treat chronic diabetic foot ulcers and pivoted to skin and hair care, launching its own professional cosmeceutical line.

The move transformed CellResearch from a biotechnology company with no revenue into one that closed 2025 with $25 million in revenue, in just four years.

“The pandemic began to redirect the focus of all funds to Covid-19 vaccines and the technology behind these vaccines. People were just not interested in diseases that were not cancer- or Covid-19-related,” Mr Gavin Tan, a founding director and chief executive of the company, told The Straits Times.

“The Covid-19 lockdown triggered a sudden surge in interest in specific cosmetic products – primarily skincare. This was a natural avenue to take because the world began to use Zoom and video conferencing.

“Everybody was looking at themselves in the camera. Everybody wanted to look better because of the extraordinary clarity of the latest digital lenses,” said the 58-year-old.

The team then channelled two decades of stem cell expertise into advanced cosmetic skin- and hair-care products.

“We basically looked at our books and thought: There’s already demand. We also knew enough to recognise that the stem cell technology from umbilical lining can regenerate the skin,” Mr Tan said.

“Prior to this, we had no revenue at all. We were just a traditional early-stage biotech company that raised money, and then continued to ‘burn’ it.”

CellResearch was established in Singapore in 2002 with a primary focus on skin cell and cord lining stem cell research. Besides Mr Tan, the two other founders are renowned Vietnamese stem cell researcher Phan Toan Thang, 57, and plastic and hand surgeon Ivor Lim, 58.

The lining of umbilical cords, usually discarded after childbirth, contains two types of stem cells: epithelial stem cells, considered a key resource for skin and tissue-lining regeneration, and mesenchymal stem cells, which are key to bone and solid organ repair.

During the pandemic, the treatment formulated from cord-lining stem cells for use on chronic diabetic and other hard-to-heal wounds was undergoing a phase one trial with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Singapore has one of the world’s highest rates of diabetes-related lower limb amputations, with about four performed daily, primarily due to poor disease management and related complications such as foot ulcers.

In 2021, the rate of such amputations in Singapore was 12.1 per 100,000, nearly double the average rate of 6.4 per 100,000 across countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Dr Lim said CellResearch saw the potential in wound care, but noted that it is an area where healing is slow and treatment can be costly in both time and money.

“Diabetic foot ulcers often impact people from lower socio-economic groups. These are the people we want to help... but when Covid-19 hit, hospital visits became increasingly tough and our FDA trial development was delayed,” said Mr Tan.

What was supposed to take a year or 1½ years stretched into a two- to three-year timeframe, he added.

However, the Covid-19 lockdowns opened up an unexpected opportunity.

The ‘rich protein soup’ for tissue repair

At CellResearch, stem cells are grown in a cultured medium, where the cells secrete proteins such as cytokines, exosomes and secretomes.

“When we extracted the cells from the medium, we were left with a ‘protein soup’,” he said.

Citing the example of a tea bag in water, Mr Tan said that after 2½ minutes, soluble compounds such as flavour oils, nutrients and caffeine would seep into the water.

“That is exactly the same situation with our ‘protein soup’... We discovered that when it was applied to the face, it significantly ‘messaged’ the skin to regenerate, and we found that fine wrinkles and frown lines improved,” he added.

Mr Tan said the “protein soup” created an environment in which the skin behaved more youthfully and regenerated itself.

“That was the beginning of our first product. We started with a cream. It is a topical solution that does not enter the skin or get introduced systemically into the body. That is the big difference between drugs and cosmetics. Cosmetics do not require approval by the FDA before they hit the market, but we must ensure that they are safe,” he added.

The company found success through two main channels, Mr Tan said. The first was through aesthetic doctors from the Middle East to London and New York. Singapore is also a big consumer of the company’s products.

“(Those) aesthetic doctors here who use laser treatments that are invasive found that the wound healing effects of our products are useful to their work,” he said.

The other channel was e-commerce shopping.

“When somebody buys our product, there is a 40 per cent repurchase rate, which is extremely high for an e-commerce cosmetic product. When they buy again, that repurchase rate increases to about 70 per cent,” he said.

Mr Tan said the company’s “piece de resistance” emerged when doctors using its cream range reported that patients were experiencing hair regrowth.

“Our co-founders are skin specialists. They are not trichologists or hair specialists. In a sense, we were a little bit sceptical. But time and time again, we saw photographs from doctors in London in particular, who had begun to use our serums for hair regrowth,” he told ST.

The team went back to the lab to investigate and discovered that “the paracrine effect” of the product was not only signalling to the skin to regenerate, but also creating a conducive environment for hair regrowth.

“It was basically like rebooting your phone. It was your own stem cells that were doing the work. They just needed to be given a little nudge by the serum,” Mr Tan said.

But it would work only if the person is not already bald, “because there needs to be follicular action for the serum to work”, Dr Lim added. The company then came up with a product that targeted hair growth.

“That was an extraordinary success. In a short span of four years, our revenue went from zero to $4 million, to $9 million, to $17 million, and last year, $25 million,” he said.

Returning to its core focus

That major growth engine provided the momentum for the turnaround of CellResearch.

“I have been telling my team that our revenue of $1 is equivalent to something called gross market value (GMV), which is $5. So the fact that we are at $25 million to $30 million today means that our GMV is multiplied by five – at $150 million. The cosmetic space allowed us to make a comeback. Last year, we closed at $25 million. This year, we are targeting $30 million to $40 million,” Mr Tan said.

He added that many companies facing similar circumstances would likely have shut down.

“We, however, were lucky because we were able to pivot to a product line that not only works, but that people love... We found a revenue stream (that) allowed us the breathing space to continue with the idealism of saving lives through closing chronic wounds.”

While CellResearch continues to develop its drug for chronic diabetic foot ulcers – which Mr Tan described as the “Rolls-Royce version” – the company is also pursuing what he called the “bicycle version” to help patients more immediately.

“We have launched a topical cream designed to heal wounds, and it is stocked at several pharmacies in hospitals in Singapore... We want to help those from lower socio-economic groups, so we have (lowered) the cost of our products to meet demand,” he said.

CellResearch will continue with the clinical phases needed for FDA approval of its drugs while working towards a listing on the Nasdaq to raise funds.

“Despite our ideals, sometimes the way forward, the way to win, is not the Rolls-Royce version. We have to take a bicycle first. Ride hard, but still get to our destination,” Mr Tan said.