Cosmetic Technical Transfers: What’s involved?
Some of our most valued clients have approached Imaginelle with a technical transfer request, bringing with them an established analytical method and/or formula from another cosmetic manufacturing facility. Therefore, this blog aims to look at what might be involved in this process and what you can do, as a brand owner or manager, to get the most out of this process.
Firstly, The World Health Organisation defines technical transfers as "a logical procedure that controls the transfer of any process together with its documentation and professional expertise between development and manufacture or between manufacture sites". Imaginelle likes to think of it as an integral step in cosmetic and skincare development. It is important to understand that technical transfers can occur for a number of different reasons such as:
Quality issues at the current manufacturing site
Upscaling a product or range
Optimising costs
Sourcing new and improved innovations and technologies
When looking to perform a technical transfer there are a number of minimum process requirements that we like to ask our clients for. These include:
A list of all consumables (e.g. single-use components used to make the product)
A list of all raw materials, as well as the amounts used. Along with the list of the suppliers of the ingredients, if known.
Formulation INCI if the client has rights to this
Description of the process and any input parameters including temperatures, pressures, PHs, mixing speeds, if known.
Finished goods specifications
To put it generally, a technical transfer at Imaginelle involves the following steps:
Our business manager will quote the new client on their existing products with a NDA, so the IP stays safe.
The formula is then priced, in order to be competitive with the current manufacturer.
A lab sample is then created to ensure that Imaginelle has the adequate knowledge for scale up.
Once this is all approved and testing is complete, Imaginelle and the client will go into production together.
In our own experience, communication across an industry like ours sometimes falls short, leading to snowball effects of inefficiency. And according to our clients, a lack of communication is the number one criticism of this industry, however, it’s the number one client-facing capability that Imaginelle pushes to excel at.
For Imaginelle, communication is key and we are passionate about encouraging clients to leverage off our environmental attributes, for example using claims of carbon neutral production in their own messaging.
Reach out to Imaginelle to begin the conversation about a technical transfer and receive open and honest dialogue, along with support from a genuine expert in the field.
