Marketed Marine Natural Products in the Pharmaceutical and Cosmeceutical Industries: Tips for Success

Overview

Journal Mar Drugs

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Biology
Pharmacology

Date 2014 Feb 20

PMID 24549205

Citations 160

Authors

Ana Martins

Helena Vieira

Helena Gaspar

Susana Santos

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The marine environment harbors a number of macro and micro organisms that have developed unique metabolic abilities to ensure their survival in diverse and hostile habitats, resulting in the biosynthesis of an array of secondary metabolites with specific activities. Several of these metabolites are high-value commercial products for the pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical industries. The aim of this review is to outline the paths of marine natural products discovery and development, with a special focus on the compounds that successfully reached the market and particularly looking at the approaches tackled by the pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies that succeeded in marketing those products. The main challenges faced during marine bioactives discovery and development programs were analyzed and grouped in three categories: biodiversity (accessibility to marine resources and efficient screening), supply and technical (sustainable production of the bioactives and knowledge of the mechanism of action) and market (processes, costs, partnerships and marketing). Tips to surpass these challenges are given in order to improve the market entry success rates of highly promising marine bioactives in the current pipelines, highlighting what can be learned from the successful and unsuccessful stories that can be applied to novel and/or ongoing marine natural products discovery and development programs.

Citing Articles

Advanced Technologies for Large Scale Supply of Marine Drugs.

Martinez H, Santos M, Pedraza L, Testera A Mar Drugs. 2025; 23(2).

PMID: 39997193 PMC: 11857447. DOI: 10.3390/md23020069.

Plant and marine-derived natural products: sustainable pathways for future drug discovery and therapeutic development.

Ahmad M, Tahir M, Hong Z, Zia M, Rafeeq H, Ahmad M Front Pharmacol. 2025; 15():1497668.

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Marine cosmetics and the blue bioeconomy: From sourcing to success stories.

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Moisturizing Effects of Alcalase Hydrolysate Fractions from Viscera, a Marine Organism, on Human Dermal Fibroblasts, HaCaT Keratinocytes, and Reconstructed Human Skin Tissues.

Kang N, Kim E, Heo S, Heo J, Ahn G, Heo S Mar Drugs. 2024; 22(11).

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