About this episode
Per Winlof leads Galderma's global R&D and is responsible for its filler portfolio past, present and future. In 1990, as a microbiology student in Uppsala, he took a job at a small biotech company founded by Dr Bengt Ågerup called Q-Med.
Fillers already existed as collagen products, but Per and his team developed a completely new way of making fillers from a sugar molecule produced by bacteria, launching the world's first hyaluronic acid filler in 1996. The technology transformed facial aesthetics and still underpins around 95% of dermal fillers today. Q-Med was acquired by Galderma in 2010, and this episode celebrates the 25th birthday of the first modern filler.
We explore how the idea was conceived, collagen versus hyaluronic acid fillers, how they're made, the advantages of non-animal products, why fillers come in 1 ml syringes, crosslinking, the beginnings of rheology, integration versus degradation, reversibility with hyaluronidase, and hints about the future.
What you'll learn
- How the first hyaluronic acid filler was invented
- How HA fillers are manufactured
- What crosslinking and rheology mean
- Integration versus degradation
- Why reversibility is a key safety feature
Topics
- History of aesthetics
- Dermal fillers
- Hyaluronic acid
- Galderma
- Sweden
Full transcript
The full transcript for this episode is coming soon.