As part of the programme, L’Oréal Act for Dermatology, the group has partnered with the World Health Organisation (WHO) Foundation to work to combat common skin diseases along with often-neglected tropical skin diseases, and increase awareness of skin diseases across the globe.
President for L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty Myriam Cohen-Welgryn said the programme aims to help “improve the lives of billions of people suffering from the physical, mental and emotional burden of skin diseases, by addressing the challenges they face in accessing skin health services for their condition.”
Cohen-Welgryn said the firm now has the mission of “ensuring skin health accessibility for everyone, everywhere, leaving no community behind.”
Global surveillance of skin health
The partnership between L’Oréal and the WHO Foundation will enable the global surveillance of skin health, including common skin diseases and more neglected skin-related tropical diseases to broaden WHO’s capacity to monitor and tackle these.
The WHO’s 78th World Health Assembly in May 2025 is also expected to discuss skin diseases as a global public health priority.
CEO of the WHO Foundation Anil Soni said the partnership “addresses an under-resourced area of health.”
“A shortage of trained specialists has added to the burden experienced by people across the world; one this project seeks to address through dermatological training, health worker education and awareness raising, among others,” Soni said.
Research into derma care in 194 countries
In October 2024 L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty began a study that covers 194 countries ‘Global Access to Skin Health Observatory’, in partnership with the International League of Dermatological Societies (ILDS).
This is investigating the global distribution of dermatologists, barriers to accessing dermatologic care in each country, and access to ‘surrogate’ skin health providers in what it dubs “dermatological deserts.”
The study is currently ongoing and results are expected to be published in 2025.
So far it has found that one-third of countries have one dermatologist or fewer per 100,000 people, which it said: “translates to at least 3.5 billion people living in a place with severely limited access to skin health services.”
According to Esther Freeman who is vice chair of the ILDS’ International Foundation for Dermatology (IFD) and Skin Observatory Lead Investigator there is a crisis with access to healthcare, especially for people with skin diseases.
“A shortage of dermatologists and frontline healthcare workers trained in skin conditions has led to dermatological ‘deserts,’ leaving millions of people without diagnosis or treatment for their skin disease. This leads to severe or even life-threatening consequences,” Freeman said.
“We face an urgent call to action: to empower and equip frontline healthcare workers, collaborate with governments to prioritise skin health on the public policy agenda, and champion locally sourced best practices globally,” she said.
What will the fund be used for?
The €20m fund is structured around four pillars:
- Investing in research to deepen understanding of skin health, including the main barriers to skin health access, knowledge gaps for skin of colour, the impact of climate change, and the effects of stigmatisation linked to skin pathologies.
- Raising awareness of skin health and collaborating with NGOs to drive meaningful policy change.
- Training healthcare workers worldwide to diagnose and treat skin disease and investing €2 million to facilitate open access to scientific publications for low-to-middle income countries.
- Investing in a “Do Tank” to expand access to skin diagnosis and treatment, through the rapid scaling of best-in-class, locally relevant solutions.