Fewer Online PDRN Best Sellers in China Name Salmon
By Jotham Lim
6 min read
Listings that name salmon fell from 38% to 23% of PDRN best sellers' sales across three of China's largest marketplaces in a year, according to Moojing Market Intelligence, and those borrowing clinic language fell from 47% to 35%. Most best sellers name no source in their titles or filed names, and almost none name the new sources ingredient makers now offer.
This article covers the fourth chapter of the full report, China's Online Sales of PDRN Skincare 2023–2026. It describes what product titles say and what China's rules require, and nothing here is a claim about what PDRN or any product does to the skin.
Key figures
- 23%: best sellers' sales from listings that name salmon, down from 38% a year earlier
- 35%: best sellers' sales from listings that use clinic words, down from 47%
- About 3%: best sellers' sales from listings that state a concentration in their titles
- About 0.1%: best sellers' sales from listings that name recombinant or plant PDRN
Method and scope: online sales across three of China's largest marketplaces, modelled from observed listings and prices, from Moojing Market Intelligence; not the total market, because physical stores, clinics and several other marketplaces are not included. Best sellers are the 100 PDRN listings selling the most units on each marketplace in each period, and shares are of their combined sales. Source is read from titles and, on two marketplaces, filed product names. "The latest year" is October 2025 to September 2026.
Do PDRN products in China say where their PDRN comes from?#
Most best sellers do not say in their titles or filed names where their PDRN comes from, and fewer now name salmon (三文鱼 or 鲑鱼). Few state a concentration in their titles, and a consumer title of the 21st Century Business Herald group found in October 2026 that brands generally do not disclose how much PDRN a finished product contains.
Exhibit 6. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed marketplace data across three of China's largest marketplaces, the 100 best-selling PDRN listings by units on each marketplace in each period, shares of their combined sales, October 2024 to September 2025 and October 2025 to September 2026; filed product names on two marketplaces. A listing borrows clinic language if its title contains 水光 (water-light), 院线 (clinic-grade), 医美 (medical aesthetics), 针 (injection, not counting 针对, "targeting") or 术后 (after a procedure). It names a source only if the title or filed product name says so explicitly. Not the total market.
Listings naming salmon sold at about the same price per unit as those naming no source in the latest year, CN¥ 126 against CN¥ 131, without allowing for product type. No survey we found measures how much more buyers would pay for a stated source, so we draw no conclusion about price from this.
Who is making recombinant and plant PDRN?#
Ingredient makers are further ahead on new sources than the products on sale. Bloomage opened a PDRN plant in Weihai in August 2026 and says it can make PDRN from animals, plants, microbial fermentation and synthetic biology. Ruijiming, a raw-material maker in Yantai, brought biosynthetic PDRN to pilot production in January 2025. In Korea, Bio-FD&C registered a patent with Korea Kolmar in July 2024 for making PDRN from rose plant cells, and began supplying cosmetics makers in May 2025.
Global brands have begun to launch products on the new sources. Clinique launched what it calls the world's first skincare line built on recombinant PDRN in Shanghai on 3 July 2026, using recombinant PDRN from a Chinese biotech company, and Lancôme sells a rose-derived PDRN in its Absolue range. We believe the source of PDRN is still promoted mainly at launches and by ingredient makers. Recombinant PDRN, which is made by fermentation rather than extracted from fish, may gain ground on salmon as supply grows.
What do China's rules say about clinic language on cosmetics?#
Under China's cosmetics regulation, labels and advertisements may not state or imply a medical effect, and the labelling rules add that a product may not use an ingredient's function to imply an effect it cannot claim. Best sellers borrow words such as "water-light" (水光), "clinic-grade" (院线) and "injection" (针) less than they did, although among the listings with the largest sales on two marketplaces the share rose at CN¥ 400 and over. State radio reported in April 2026 that some livestreams sold cosmetic "water-light" liquids as if they reached the dermis, and quoted a lawyer who called such claims disguised medical claims. We make no finding on any listing, since only a regulator can decide.
| Question | Rule |
|---|---|
| Ingredient | Listed as sodium DNA (DNA 钠), entry 383 in the inventory of ingredients already used in cosmetics, so on our reading no new-ingredient approval is needed |
| Ordinary cosmetic claims | Anti-wrinkle and firming claims each need at least one human efficacy test, consumer use test or laboratory test; repair claims need a human efficacy test |
| Medical effects | Labels and advertisements may not state or imply one or use medical terms, and labels may not use an ingredient's function to imply an effect the product cannot claim |
| Source and amount | We found no rule requiring either on the label, but all ingredients are listed, those at or below 0.1% apart as "other trace ingredients", and anything stated must be true |
Exhibit 7. Cosmetics in China may not imply a medical effect, and ordinary claims each need a test. Source: China's cosmetics regulation and Advertising Law, the NMPA's ingredient inventory, classification, efficacy and labelling rules, and press reports, as cited in the full report. The second row describes categories of claim under the rules and says nothing about any ingredient.
In Korea, data from the food and drug regulator, released by a lawmaker in July 2026, showed advertising violations by PDRN cosmetics rising from 7 in 2023 to 39 in 2025 and to 41 in the first half of 2026 alone, and three-quarters of the 106 cases since 2023 were for wording that could make a cosmetic look like a drug.
The listing of PDRN as sodium DNA is covered in What is PDRN?, prices in the average price of PDRN skincare, and what brands should do in four moves for brands. The sources are in the full report.
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