It is rare for a technology company to simultaneously grace the pages of both Time Magazine and the world’s glossiest beauty titles but the success of Rhytec’s revolutionary skin treatment technology is winning the company growing acclaim in both medical and beauty circles.

Time Magazine named the company’s FDA-approved Portrait® PSR3 device, (which uses plasma energy to stimulate collagen production and deliver dramatic skin improvements) as one of the top new skincare technologies.

Rhytec’s technology has earned mentions in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar too as a significant new force in the battle against ageing. Rhytec has made a breakthrough in a lucrative area, delivering a completely new technology with significant advantages over existing skin therapies such as laser treatments, says Ken Grant, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Rhytec.

SEP first invested in Rhytec in 2004 in an £8 million funding round alongside Advent Partners. The company was founded by surgeon Dr Mark Goble, an experienced entrepreneur who spun it out of Gyrus Group, a medical technology business. It was set up in Hungerford and has US operations headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts and employs 40 people in the USA.

Rhytec conducted clinical trials for three years before launching Portrait and less than two years after it shipped its first product it has established a growing client base among dermatologists and plastic surgeons in its key US market.

It has also clinched sales in 20 international markets in southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America and Rhytec’s Grant says the company is about to crack new markets in the Pacific Rim too.

Part of Portrait’s attraction is that it is licensed not only to treat facial wrinkles but also other parts of the body such as necks and hands which display the tell-tale signs of age or sun damage.

The fact that it involves minimal downtime for patients and only topical anaesthaesia has increased its appeal to a cash-rich but time-poor client base seeking ways to look younger and healthier. A few decades ago cosmetic surgery to treat wrinkles was seen as a luxury for the super-rich but the introduction of more affordable non-surgical therapies means more people are seeking treatments.

Portrait is sold to dermatologists and plastic surgeons who use a hand-held device to deliver nitrogen plasma energy (a form of highly energised gas) that works both at and below the surface of the skin.

Grant says it modifies the skin’s architecture and generates new collagen for up to one year. It has been proven effective in treating fine lines, deep wrinkles, sun damage and pre-cancerous lesions.

“In other therapies such as laser treatments, the treatment actually vaporises the skin and effectively creates an open wound. Our technology is completely different. It is far easier on the skin and it actually regenerates new healthy skin underneath,” Grant says.

Unlike laser treatments, eye protection is not an issue so patients do not need to wear goggles. And also, where rival therapies cause peeling and sometimes severe reddening of the skin, Portrait has minimal side effects, allowing patients to resume their normal lives quickly, reducing the need to take time off to recover.

Brian Kerr, a director in SEP’s Healthcare team said: “Rhytec has taken significant strides in establishing itself as a highly innovative player in a competitive but rapidly-growing market. Demand for new skincare treatments will underpin its future growth and we expect international sales to accelerate.”