L'Oréal closed 2024 with its Dermatological Beauty division — which includes La Roche-Posay, CeraVe, SkinCeuticals, Skinbetter Science and Vichy — at EUR 5.2 billion in revenue and organic growth of 9.8% versus the previous year, with divisional profitability of 26.1%. The first quarter of 2024 had already recorded +21.9% organic growth and EUR 2 billion in the period alone, marking the fifteenth consecutive double-digit quarter. 2025 saw a normalization at +5.5% LFL, +2.5% reported, with double-digit acceleration in the fourth quarter and a CeraVe turnaround. Pierre Fabre closed 2024 at EUR 3.1 billion in total revenue — of which 70% from international markets across 120 countries — with EUR 220 million in R&D; the Dermo-Cosmetics & Personal Care division reached EUR 1.7 billion in 2025 (+3.9%), equal to 55% of group revenue. Beiersdorf Derma — Eucerin, Aquaphor, Chantecaille — reached EUR 1.4 billion in 2024 with organic growth of 10.6%.
Three giants, three structurally convergent trajectories. Dermatological beauty — dermo-cosmetics sold mainly through the pharmacy and parapharmacy channel, with explicit dermatological endorsement and active-rich formulations — is the single highest-growth category of global beauty from 2020 to 2026, with some of the highest operating margins in the cosmetics industry. For the Italian market the trajectory is equally clear. Cosmetica Italia data released in March 2025 placed Italian cosmetics industry revenue for 2024 at EUR 16.5 billion (+9.1%), with exports of EUR 7.9 billion (48% of the total), and Italy as the second European exporter and fourth worldwide.
Italy: EUR 4.5 billion in cross-channel dermo-cosmetics
Cosmetics sales in Italian pharmacies in 2024 reached EUR 2.2 billion with growth of 7.2% versus 2023, according to joint data from Federfarma and Cosmetica Italia. Cosmetic e-commerce grew 10.7%, perfumery 10.2%. Cross-channel dermo-cosmetics — pharmacy plus parapharmacy plus online plus modern trade — reached EUR 4.5 billion with +7.2%. The three main pharmacy baskets are skincare at nearly EUR 1.5 billion, cleansing at EUR 364 million and haircare at EUR 179 million. Cosmetica Italia forecasts for 2025 estimate growth of 5.9% for the pharmacy channel and 6.9% for the overall cosmetics market. The 2026 trajectory is estimated at +3.8% for the pharmacy channel.
The competitive landscape of the Italian pharmacy channel is characterized by the coexistence of international brands — La Roche-Posay, Avène, Eucerin, Vichy, CeraVe, Bioderma — and established Italian players that maintain significant share. Bionike, a brand of ICIM International, is the pharmacy dermo-cosmetics leader with 29.6% market share according to IQVIA and NielsenIQ data 2024-2025. Istituto Ganassini and Avène complete the podium on pharmacy promotional flyers. Clinicalfarma, active with the Lovren and Narika brands, recorded +43.3% volume in the 2024 pharmacy dermo-cosmetics market according to FashionNetwork Italia, signalling the entry of new high-growth players.
Why pharmacy works
The structural advantage of the pharmacy channel versus modern trade and mass beauty retail rests on three overlapping elements. The first is the advisory role of the pharmacist, whom Italian consumers perceive as a source of professional authority superior to a shopping-mall beauty advisor or an influencer's digital content. Counter advisory modifies consumer decision-making, shifts average basket value toward higher-unit-value products, and reduces price elasticity on premium references. The pharmacist is the first healthcare touchpoint for many Italians, and the transfer of authority between "health advice" and "skin advice" is natural.
The second element is the explicit dermatological endorsement that dermo-cosmetics brands can claim. La Roche-Posay is recommended by approximately 90,000 dermatologists worldwide according to L'Oréal 2024 data. CeraVe is the most recommended brand by dermatologists in the United States and saw explosive growth between 2020 and 2024 under this scientific narrative. The presence of a structured Derm Board — the model L'Oréal has extended across multiple brands in its portfolio — directly connects product to physician, and the pharmacy is the natural channel to consolidate this connection. The third element is the curated in-store experience: Italian pharmacies have invested in reconfiguring their dermo-cosmetics spaces over the last five years, with dedicated counters, staff training, and integration with in-store digital skin analysis services.
Pharmacy e-commerce: the other growth engine
The fastest-growing data point within the Italian pharmacy channel is not physical sales but e-commerce. The online segment of Italian pharmacy and parapharmacy exceeded EUR 1.09 billion in 2024 with +16% year-on-year, and IQVIA projects 9% growth for 2025. The dynamic is particularly strong in the dermo-cosmetics and supplements segments. Online pharmacies — Amicafarmacia, ShopFarmacia, Farmaè, EFarma, DocPeter — cover approximately 46% of the online dermo-cosmetics-supplements market, Amazon 41%. The remaining 13% is fragmented across D2C brands, vertical marketplaces and manufacturers' websites.
The 2024-2026 strategic evolution is the convergence between physical and digital pharmacy channels. Italian pharmacy chains — Apoteca Natura, Lloyds, Dr. Max, Coopfarma — are building structured digital presences that integrate the physical point of sale with proprietary apps, loyalty programs, click-and-collect and video consultation with the pharmacist. The "phygital" model that Apoteca Natura has developed with Relatech RePlatform across more than 1,300 pharmacies in four European countries is the most mature benchmark. The 2026 competitive challenge is to preserve the pharmacist's advisory advantage even within the digital experience, avoiding the flattening of dermo-cosmetics e-commerce onto Amazon's transactional model.
The 2026-2028 triennial challenge
For the Italian dermo-cosmetics system — manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, system integrators — the 2026-2028 period is articulated around three simultaneous strategic constraints. The first is the defense of the pharmacist's advisory value against the pressure of purely transactional online channels. Available technologies — pharmacy CRM, proprietary apps, video consultation, integration with in-store AI skin analysis systems — are mature; the constraint is adoption and staff training. The second is managing the SKU explosion that global brands are introducing into the channel. L'Oréal, Pierre Fabre and Beiersdorf have tripled their dermo-cosmetics portfolios over the last decade; Italian pharmacies cannot proportionally expand their assortments and must make curation choices that affect supplier relationships.
The third constraint is regulatory. EC Regulation 1223/2009 on cosmetic products and EU Regulation 655/2013 on cosmetic claims apply in full to dermo-cosmetics, and the update under Reg. EU 2024/858 of March 2024 extended prohibited substances in Annex II with twelve nanomaterials. When a dermo-cosmetics product crosses the boundary toward medical devices — diagnostic skin analysis via app, clinical product recommendation — it enters the perimeter of the Medical Device Regulation and potentially the high-risk regime of the EU AI Act. It is a boundary that will become operationally relevant in 2026-2027 with the maturation of skin AI in pharmacy. Italian pharmacists, brands and system integrators must start speaking the same regulatory language before the constraint manifests as a launch block or an inspection.
