LOréal joins forces with Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet | Photo credits: © L’oréal
by Paresh Dave
January 20 (Reuters) – Verily, a subsidiary of the American group Alphabet specializing in technologies applied to health and the French cosmetics giant L’Oreal announced on Thursday a partnership relating, among other things, to the development of new skin care products.
Verily, which has never been a beneficiary, refused to reveal the terms of what it presents as “a multi-year strategic research partnership and collaboration”.
L’Oréal said the agreement covers “two programs aimed at better understanding and deciphering the mechanisms of hair and skin aging and supporting L’Oréal’s strategy and product development in new precision”.
Several executives who have left Verily have criticized the American company for multiplying collaboration agreements with pharmaceutical laboratories rather than favoring the sale of subscriptions to its clinical research and treatment management software.
For these ex-executives, the approach chosen by Verily results in irregular income and prevents it from achieving profitability.
According to a source familiar with the matter, Verily made about $400 million in revenue last year, but more than a quarter of that revenue comes from low-margin drug testing management. coronavirus, and the company’s losses have widened significantly compared to 2020.
Verily said this information was inaccurate but does not publish its accounts.
The agreement announced Thursday with L’Oréal is the first concluded by the company with a cosmetics group.
Google, another Alphabet subsidiary that is currently testing an artificial intelligence tool for detecting skin diseases, is not involved in the partnership, company officials said.
(Report Paresh Dave, French version Marc Angrand)