Guye's 'Second Growth Curve' Emerges: From a $8.5 Billion Beauty Business to the Life Sciences and Health Sector

Following its presentation at the 2026 China Cosmetics Science & Technology Conference on May 21—featuring the 'Scientific Research Launch on Chinese Skin and Body Constitution · Guye Cell Secretome HME Series New Product Launch'—Guye made an even more strategically significant public announcement the next day at the 'Biopharmaceutical Industry Innovation and Development Forum,' part of its tenth-anniversary celebration series. The company revealed that its former 'Qingnang R&D Center' has been upgraded into 'Qingwen Pharmaceuticals,' a dedicated subsidiary for scientific research and raw material development, extending its R&D focus from cosmetics into life health sectors such as science-backed nutritional supplements and innovative pharmaceuticals.

Qingwen Pharmaceuticals embodies 19 years of scientific research achievements by Guye and its China Botanical Extraction Lab, established in 2007. It represents both a continuation of Guye’s research foundation and the cornerstone of its future high-quality growth. Additionally, Academician Lin Shengcai of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has entered into a deep collaboration with Qingwen Pharmaceuticals on anti-aging research, significantly reinforcing the scientific capabilities of both Guye and Qingwen. Under this deeply integrated industry-academia-research-application ecosystem, Guye’s ten-year R&D strategy is becoming increasingly clear: leverage a single R&D investment to enable cross-utilization of core ingredients and key technologies across three business tracks—cosmetics, science-backed oral nutrition, and innovative drugs—driving growth through cutting-edge technological strength and product excellence.

Within just two days, Guye has intensively unveiled its scientific research layout and industrial transformation achievements—an exceptionally rare move among domestic Chinese cosmetics brands. At an industry inflection point where China’s total cosmetics sales across all channels have surpassed RMB 1 trillion and domestic brands’ retail market share has exceeded 57%, why would a cosmetics company generating RMB 6 billion in annual sales bet its next chapter on the life sciences and health sector? Guye provided its answer through this forum.

On the day of the forum, distinguished attendees included Yan Jiangying, Chairwoman of the China Association of Fragrance, Flavor and Cosmetic Industries; Academician Lin Shengcai, Professor at the School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Chinese Academy of Sciences; and Professor Wu Jianxin, doctoral supervisor at China Pharmaceutical University, among other leaders, experts, and scholars who engaged in in-depth discussions.

The Ballast: Supporting High-Quality Growth Through Full-Stack In-House R&D

"The foundational capability that has supported GUYU's decade-long high-quality growth is absolutely not the marketing or traffic capabilities rumored externally, but rather our 'full-stack in-house R&D' system, which we began building ten years ago," said Lin Yuting, President of GUYU and Co-Founder of the brand, who took the stage at the forum’s opening speech with another title—Chairwoman and General Manager of Qingwen Pharmaceuticals.

Lin explained that 'full-stack in-house R&D' means not only conducting deep research into raw materials but also achieving technological self-reliance and full-chain autonomy over those ingredients. While many domestic beauty brands talk about 'R&D,' very few have genuinely conducted fundamental research at the raw material level, achieved fully in-house development and production of all core ingredients, and secured complete independent intellectual property rights.

After ten years of construction, GUYU’s 'foundation' has become robust. On the R&D front, it operates the Qingwen R&D Center spanning over 4,000 square meters, housing eight specialized functional laboratories; its in-house testing facility holds dual accreditations from China’s CMA and CNAS. On the manufacturing side, its state-of-the-art cosmetics factory covers 45,000 square meters and features 14 automated production lines. Crucially—and unusually within the industry—it also independently operates three advanced raw material facilities specializing in synthetic biology, chemical synthesis, and plant extraction. Notably, a massive global R&D and intelligent manufacturing center—covering nearly 250,000 square meters—is set to break ground soon in Huangpu District, Guangzhou. This 'super factory' will integrate the aforementioned facilities and serve as GUYU’s scientific 'super brain.' At the upstream cultivation end, GUYU has established a licorice research farm exceeding 200 mu (approximately 33 acres) in Kashgar, Xinjiang, collaborating with Shihezi University on high-yield, premium cultivation techniques—extending 'full-chain autonomy' all the way to farming while simultaneously boosting local employment, industrial upgrading, and environmental sustainability.

GUYU’s commitment to foundational research is equally rare. It has gathered dynamic operational data from over 50,000 individuals, accumulating nearly 1.6 million skin-related metrics to build a comprehensive foundational database. At the '2026 China Cosmetics Science and Technology Conference' held the previous day, GUYU officially inaugurated the 'Chinese Skin and Constitution Science Research Center' and launched a dedicated scientific research fund. The center will collaborate with professors and researchers from multiple Chinese universities and institutes to advance studies in building a national skin-type database, refined research on specific demographic groups, and the mechanistic links between skin conditions and body constitution—establishing foundational research that can empower the entire industry.

This continuously reinforced scientific foundation is reflected in GUYU’s market performance through a series of record-breaking figures: in 2025, GUYU’s total brand sales exceeded RMB 6 billion. According to third-party data, it ranked among the top three nationwide in both online transaction value and brand strength. Moreover, based on Euromonitor International’s latest 2025 survey, GUYU has held the No. 1 position in China for three consecutive years (2023–2025) in retail sales of whitening facial skincare products under domestic brands, with its market share continuing to rise.

"Core Ingredient" Breakthrough: Bringing Chinese-Origin Ingredients to the Global Stage

What truly differentiates GUYU from its peers is its ability to translate innovation into proprietary core ingredients—a capability that also serves as the primary driver behind the evolution of 'Qingnang' into 'Qingwen.'

Qingwen started from an even higher vantage point. In September 2025, the Xiamen University–GUYU Biopharmaceuticals Joint Research Center was inaugurated at Xiamen University, with Professor Lin Shengcai—an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dean of Xiamen University’s School of Life Sciences—serving as its director. Lin’s team pioneered and leads global research on the 'lysosome–AMPK pathway.' Over the past two decades, they have redefined AMPK activation mechanisms through a series of original discoveries—shifting the paradigm from an 'energy sensor' to a 'lysosomal glucose sensor'—a transformation hailed internationally as a 'paradigm shift.' Four of their core findings were respectively selected among China’s Top Ten Scientific Advances in 2012 and China’s Top Ten Life Science Advances in 2017, 2022, and 2025. Their most recent breakthrough came in December 2024, when they published two back-to-back papers in Nature revealing the molecular mechanisms by which lithocholic acid exerts anti-aging and lifespan-extending effects.

According to disclosures at this forum, the collaboration between the two parties has now reached a new level. Academician Lin Shengcai and his team will engage in deep cooperation with Qingwen on frontier basic research in anti-aging science and the development of therapeutics for related chronic diseases—a long-term, in-depth scientific partnership between a top-tier academician and a company that remains exceptionally rare in publicly available industry information.

Under Qingwen’s deeply integrated industry-academia-research-application ecosystem, GUYU has achieved continuous iterative 'core ingredient' breakthroughs powered by three proprietary technologies.

Leveraging 'melt crystallization purification technology,' GUYU has elevated the purity of glabridin to an industry-leading 99%. Combined with 28-nanometer encapsulation and targeted delivery technologies, it achieves deep penetration and precisely binds to the unique MC1R receptors on melanocyte surfaces, significantly enhancing whitening efficacy. Through years of dedicated investment in this ingredient, GUYU commands the majority of global glabridin usage and maintains overwhelming dominance across consumer perception, technological capabilities, and upstream-downstream supply chains, substantially widening its lead over current industry standards.

Supported by 'intelligent enzyme-mimetic biosynthesis technology,' GUYU has achieved high-purity mass production of rare ginsenoside CK using AI-based screening techniques and completed the industry’s first regulatory filing for this novel rare ginsenoside ingredient. More importantly, rare ginsenoside CK demonstrates exceptional anti-aging performance. Professor Lin Shengcai’s research team has proven through key experiments that rare ginsenoside CK can activate the AMPK pathway via the lysosomal route, conferring comprehensive anti-aging effects. This proprietary ingredient, fully protected by independent intellectual property rights, will serve as a critical enabler for GUYU and Qingwen to extend their scientific research into the broader health and wellness sector.

Based on 'intelligent gene-level target screening technology,' GUYU’s third core ingredient, Cell Secretome HME™, is the industry’s first fully compliant artificial biomimetic exosome. It accurately replicates the structure and function of human-derived exosomes by combining compliant cosmetic ingredients listed in official directories with AI-determined optimal ratios, thereby avoiding the multiple risks associated with human-derived exosomes. It effectively activates young epidermal stem cells and reduces senescent cells. On May 21 at the '2026 China Cosmetics Science & Technology Conference,' GUYU unveiled a series of new products featuring Cell Secretome HME™.

Notably, these three core ingredients not only empower GUYU’s own product portfolio and efficacy enhancements but also represent Chinese-origin ingredients stepping onto the global stage. In April, GUYU Qingwen made its debut as a raw material supplier at In-Cosmetics Global in Paris—the event widely regarded as the 'Oscars of the ingredients industry.' The exhibition gathered global leaders such as BASF SE, Clariant, and Ashland, attracting over 30,000 professional attendees from more than 80 countries and regions. GUYU Qingwen received multiple collaboration inquiries from clients in Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, with Cell Secretome HME™ emerging as the most highly sought-after ingredient. 'Virtually every client expressing interest placed this ingredient at the top of their list,' noted Lin Yuting during her presentation. The shift from brand owner to ingredient supplier itself stands as a testament to capability.

A New Growth Curve: One R&D Investment, Three Output Streams

As domestic Chinese beauty brands approach the RMB 10 billion scale and traffic-driven growth fades, identifying a 'second growth curve' has become an industry imperative. GUYU’s response involves a two-step strategy extending from skincare into nutraceuticals and innovative pharmaceuticals. Lin Yuting succinctly summarized the underlying business logic: 'A single R&D investment supports outputs across three distinct business lines, enabling structural reuse of our research resources.'

The first step is entering the science-backed oral nutrition market. On the day of the forum, the brand name 'GUYU Sishiyoufang' was revealed for the first time as the group’s new nutraceutical line. Rather than focusing on basic tonics, it targets advanced precision anti-aging solutions, leveraging rare ginsenoside CK as its functional cornerstone—a direct application of Qingwen’s scientific achievements in a new domain. 'Grounded in the scientifically validated 'AMPK–SIRT1–PGC-1α longevity axis' from aging biology, inspired by classical Chinese herbal formulas, and guided by the traditional 'Jun-Chen-Zuo-Shi' formulation philosophy, our products center on Qingwen’s proprietary rare ginsenoside CK and are compounded with authentic Chinese botanical extracts sourced according to Dao-di principles,' explained Lin Yuting in her speech. 'Local environments nurture local people; millennia of empirical use demonstrate superior biocompatibility between traditional Chinese botanicals and the Chinese constitution.' This rationale clarifies why GUYU established the 'Chinese Skin and Body Constitution Research Center' to strengthen foundational research. According to reports, GUYU Sishiyoufang products are scheduled for market launch within this year and are expected to become a new driver of GUYU’s revenue growth.

The second step follows closely behind—GUYU is venturing into innovative drug development. 'Qingwen’s capabilities extend far beyond this; we aim to leverage our accumulated technical advantages at the ingredient level and extend them into pharmaceutical R&D, allowing medical-grade innovation to feed back into our consumer products. That’s why Qingwen’s full name is “Qingwen Pharmaceuticals,”' shared Lin Yuting. This naming itself signals that GUYU’s expansion isn’t merely flirting with the broad 'health and wellness' concept—it is committed to genuinely developing pharmaceuticals.

According to Lin Yuting, Qingwen’s pharmaceutical research will focus on two directions: natural products and small nucleic acids. These areas aren’t arbitrary choices but rather natural extensions and amplifications of GUYU’s existing scientific achievements. In the natural products domain, rare ginsenoside CK—validated for its ability to activate the AMPK pathway—shows strong potential as an innovative drug candidate, and Qingwen Pharmaceuticals will conduct in-depth drug development research in collaboration with Professor Lin Shengcai’s team. In the small nucleic acid field, Qingwen plans to build upon the target screening, encapsulation, and targeted delivery technologies developed during the creation of Cell Secretome HME™ to explore therapeutic applications.

Currently, Qingwen is actively advancing both innovative drug pipelines. In the small nucleic acid area, it has established a multi-layered external collaboration network, including joint research projects with the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Xiamen University on nano-gene and drug delivery systems, strategic investment in Aileke—a technology spin-off from Northwestern Polytechnical University—and the appointment of the 2013 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and Stanford University’s Professor of Structural Biology as a scientific advisor to guide the development of its AI-powered ingredient screening platform.

In the natural products pipeline, preliminary milestone progress was achieved in April this year, as Qingwen's rare ginsenoside CK successfully obtained a Type II Drug Master File (DMF) listing (DMF number: 043987) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Meanwhile, preclinical studies for this ingredient are also underway in China.

It is evident that whether in skincare ingredients, science-backed nutritional oral products, or innovative pharmaceuticals, GUYU consistently leverages the same active ingredient or core technology to continuously reinforce its capabilities. This reflects GUYU’s articulated strategic vision for the next decade: 'One R&D investment, three businesses co-evolving. Wherever scientific research advances, products and operations follow.'

"The trust and resources you’ve given GUYU over the years have not been wasted—they are growing into something even greater. The journey from skincare to innovative drugs is long, but with all of you alongside us, we are confident we can go further."

China’s 15th Five-Year Plan repeatedly emphasizes 'scientific and technological self-reliance and strength' and the 'modern industrial system,' reshaping the valuation logic for large consumer companies—from 'traffic multiplied by channels' to 'R&D multiplied by industrial chain.' In its first decade, GUYU has already provided a compelling illustration of this shift: building a fully integrated in-house R&D system at its foundation and achieving breakthrough innovations and scientific linkages at the frontier. The roadmap for GUYU’s next decade—its strategic layout in the life and health industry—is now clearly defined.

*The above content does not constitute investment advice, does not represent the views of the publishing platform, the market carries risks, invest with caution, and make independent judgments and decisions.

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