After reversing into AIM-listed Meon Capital in January, skin care products start-up Dermasalve Sciences has taken a tentative step forward with the announcement that it has signed an agreement with Chatel Ltd, a Jersey based healthcare company, to develop distribution and sales initiatives in Europe .

Dermasalve’s core product is a sensitive skin care cream range which uses no perfumes or sensitisers and smaller amounts of paraffin oil than many products on the market. Stocked in 1,200 Lloyds and 550 independent chemists throughout the UK, the range has experienced ‘sales slippage’ in recent months – mainly due to the time taken for Lloyd’s chemists to approve the sample marketing pack sent out to potential stockists. This approval has now been achieved and feedback has apparently been ‘overwhelmingly positive’.

Nevertheless, it has been a crawling start for the company. Analysts at Hardman & Co say that UK sales buildup has been slower than expected, but that one or two interesting developments within the company have been positive. A proposed move into pharmaceutical products in the form of an anti-MRSA hand cleaner, Bioclense, for hospital use, has cheered a little. The product is to undergo MHRA approval, due within the next three months. A planned launch of an acne cream off-shoot is on the cards while a move into Omega 3 oil products for cardiac benefits, produced from seeds rather than the traditionally used fish oils, could provide an interesting niche for the company.

That said, positive noises from management and conjecture from analysts are not good enough reasons to buy into this fledgling company yet. Avoid.