As the "618" shopping festival approaches, a giant in the recombinant collagen industry worth 70 billion yuan is accused of "ingredient fraud" | In - depth analysis

As the mid - year e - commerce promotion approaches, Genskin Biotech, the so - called "first stock of recombinant collagen", has fallen into a huge controversy.

Recently, a social media blogger called "Dr. Big Mouth", who claims to be a chemistry doctor from the University of Hong Kong and a former head of scientific communication at L'Oréal China, has continuously posted articles stating that after testing, the actual content of recombinant collagen in the core product "Collagen Stick (Human - Like Recombinant Collagen Skin Repair Ampoule Serum)" of Genskin Biotech's brand Kefumei is lower than the claimed amount in the promotion.

As the revenue champion of Genskin Biotech, the Kefumei series earned 4.5 billion yuan in 2024, a year - on - year increase of 62.9%, accounting for 80% of the company's total revenue. Among them, the efficacy - based skincare product category centered around the "Collagen Stick" contributed nearly 80% of Kefumei's revenue.

On social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu, many skeptical voices believe that if even leading companies may have "fraudulent" phenomena, as ordinary consumers, can we still trust and choose recombinant collagen products?

Is the low usage of recombinant collagen due to "production not keeping up with sales"?

The initial controversy stemmed from a set of figures.

According to the high - precision HPLC high - performance liquid chromatography amino acid quantitative detection method selected by "Dr. Big Mouth", the actual content of recombinant collagen in the "Collagen Stick" is only 0.0177%, far lower than the "ingredient" addition (≥0.1%) marked on the product, which may constitute false information on the formula list. In response, Kefumei stated that according to the domestic industry standard for recombinant collagen excipients "YY/T 1947 - 2025", the collagen content in multiple batches of products tested is greater than 0.1%.

In subsequent rounds of responses from both sides, they further accused each other of choosing unreasonable detection methods.

The dispute over the detection method has been escalating because the cosmetics industry has not yet clearly defined a legal detection standard for recombinant collagen, which allows both parties to stick to their own positions. Currently, relevant market supervision departments in Shaanxi Province have paid attention and intervened in the investigation, and the controversy may soon reach a conclusion.

Compared with this, another more noteworthy point in the whole event is that "Dr. Big Mouth" said that he conducted this test because insiders had told him that after testing "several leading recombinant collagen products on the market", they found that "the so - called recombinant collagen essence may not contain recombinant collagen at all".

This "open secret in the industry" has been buried until now because, limited by technology, the "production volume of recombinant collagen raw materials cannot keep up with sales". Currently, the production rate of recombinant collagen is still at the milligram per liter level, while the production rates of other biosynthetic substances such as hyaluronic acid have reached grams per liter or even hundreds of grams per liter.

This is equivalent to directly pointing the finger at the entire concept of recombinant collagen, which has also become a major technological trend and a wealth - creating myth in the cosmetics industry in recent years.

Recombinant collagen is the production of collagen through genetic engineering fermentation. From a technological perspective, the difficulties almost run through the entire process, including the selection and length of the collagen amino acid sequence, the modification of chassis strains in the biosynthetic process, and the purification and separation process in subsequent production.

The industry has never evaded these problems. On the contrary, it is precisely this scarcity that supports the high prices of recombinant collagen products and the tens of billions of market values of concept companies such as Genskin Biotech and Jinbo Biotech.

So, how should we understand the so - called "low ingredient content due to insufficient production"?

A person from a biomaterials company who has been engaged in protein chemistry research for many years explained that the aforementioned technical difficulties do exist, but they mostly occur when developing a new material. In the case of recombinant collagen, for companies that have crossed the R & D technology threshold, obtained relevant certificates, and have corresponding products, these may not be problems.

"So, it is unlikely that the network blogger's claim that insufficient technology leads to limited production is true. However, there is a possibility that the sudden increase in demand for terminal products in the short term causes production to fall behind for a while, because it takes time to configure production equipment. But this situation will generally be resolved with capacity building."

In addition, from a cost perspective, the production price of recombinant collagen is also decreasing. The aforementioned company representative mentioned that in the past two years, the price of recombinant collagen has been "significantly decreasing". However, due to the brand effect of leading raw material enterprises, the market price range is quite large.

In this regard, the data of Chuangjian Medical, a supplier of recombinant collagen raw materials, may serve as evidence. The company once mentioned that in 2024, the revenue of its core raw material business decreased by 26.23%, mainly because it "strategically adjusted the sales prices of some products in line with the industry development trend" and the sales volume of some products decreased.

The aforementioned company representative therefore believes that if the phenomenon mentioned by "Dr. Big Mouth" really exists, it may be difficult to attribute it to technical limitations. "Then, how much recombinant collagen is actually added and whether it is less becomes a matter of business stance and is not easy to evaluate."

With the mid - year promotion approaching, the company's performance may be impacted

Currently, the dispute over "ingredient fraud" has not reached a conclusion, but a more practical problem is at hand: the "618" shopping festival is coming.

This is one of the most important "battlefields" for various consumer medical products every year. According to Genskin Biotech, during the 618 promotion in 2024, the "Collagen Stick" achieved multiple sales achievements, such as "TOP 1 in the facial essence category on Tmall" and "TOP 1 among domestic brands in the liquid essence category on Douyin".

Judging from the feedback on social media, although many long - term repeat customers say that the product is indeed effective and trustworthy, there are also many consumers who question the product.

The market is worried that if the controversy continues to ferment, causing consumers to adopt a wait - and - see attitude or triggering a return wave, it may directly impact the company's performance.

After all, from the perspective of revenue composition, the proportion of Kefumei in Genskin Biotech's revenue has been increasing year by year, reaching 68%, 79%, and 82% in the three years since its listing. The rapid growth of Kefumei's performance is mainly due to the launch of the "Collagen Stick" single product at the end of 2021. From 2021 to 2024, the revenue of the Kefumei segment increased from 898 million yuan to 4.542 billion yuan.

According to the company's data, since the launch of the "Collagen Stick", the sales volume has exceeded 515 million units, and more than 1.11 million consumers have made purchases. Recently, Kefumei also launched a 2.0 version of the "Collagen Stick", which is said to have "stronger collagen, better formula, more powerful efficacy, and safer market evidence". Currently, the sales volume on the official Taobao store has exceeded 60,000 orders.

In the long - term perspective, many cosmetics and medical aesthetics giants are increasing their efforts in the development and market promotion of recombinant collagen products. In addition to listed companies such as Genskin Biotech and Jinbo Biotech, companies like Bloomage Biotechnology, LVMH, and Shiseido have entered the recombinant collagen track through capital actions such as acquisitions and investments; L'Oréal, Harbin Third Pharmaceutical and others have entered the market by cooperating with recombinant collagen concept companies to launch new brands and products.

In terms of terminal product types, many companies are also accelerating their layout to develop recombinant collagen injection products, thereby expanding the new market for this material in the medical aesthetics field. Different from existing Class II medical device products such as dressings and gels, the development barriers for Class III injection products are higher, and their "gold content" is naturally greater. Currently, the doubling performance of Jinbo Biotech, the only company with a Class III certificate, is sufficient proof of this.

However, it is not easy to build market recognition. If the current trust crisis regarding recombinant collagen materials further intensifies, it is not a good sign for the entire industry.

In this sense, although the doubts originated from Genskin Biotech, the impact may go far beyond just this one company.