China PDRN Skincare Online: Four Moves for Brands

Brands selling PDRN skincare in China should state the source and amount of the ingredient, and we believe they should keep the language of injections off labels and livestreams and choose a clear price position, while ingredient makers should prepare in case recombinant PDRN gains ground on salmon. Online sales of skincare named after PDRN reached about CN¥ 2.2 billion across three of China's largest marketplaces in the year to September 2026.

This article covers the recommendations in the full report, China's Online Sales of PDRN Skincare 2023–2026. Readings of the rules are ours, and only a regulator can decide how they apply to any listing, on which we make no finding. Nothing here is a claim about what PDRN or any product does to the skin.

Key figures

• ×4.9: the sales multiple in a year, while skincare as a whole was about flat
• 77%: best sellers' sales from listings that name no source in their titles or filed names
• About a third: best sellers' sales from listings that borrow clinic words
• 55% to 30%: products priced CN¥ 200 to 399 as a share of PDRN sales, on the two marketplaces measured in both years

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 filed names are read on two marketplaces. Price bands in both years cover two marketplaces.

Exhibit 2. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed marketplace data across three of China's largest marketplaces, skincare listings whose titles contain "PDRN", and all skincare in the same categories, in three twelve-month periods to September. Not the total market.

Why should PDRN brands state the source and amount?#

Brands should name the source, give the amount in the finished product and add quality measures such as purity and molecular size, because the ingredient list may show neither source nor amount. PDRN commonly appears on Chinese labels as sodium DNA (DNA 钠), and on our reading salmon and recombinant PDRN can share that name, while ingredients at or below 0.1% are listed apart as "other trace ingredients".

We found no rule requiring source or percentage on a label, but as we read the 2021 filing rules brands must already hold both, so disclosure is a small step. What is stated must be accurate: the labelling rules require a raw material used in a product's name to match the formula, and on our reading a raw material's strength cannot be quoted as the product's. A stated source must be true, so it gives buyers something to hold a brand to. A voluntary group standard for testing PDRN raw material has been in force since December 2025, although we found no national standard and no standard method for measuring PDRN in a finished product.

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. Not the total market.

We believe disclosure is the condition for being believed, and brands should not expect it to raise prices on its own. Listings naming salmon sold at about the same price as those naming no source, without allowing for product type, and no survey we found measures what buyers would pay for a stated source.

Why should PDRN brands keep injection language off labels?#

Brands should describe their products with the claims a cosmetic may make, and back each claim with the test the rules require. About a third of best sellers' sales still come from listings that borrow clinic words, and we make no finding on any of them. Chinese cosmetics may not state or imply a medical effect, and the Advertising Law bars wording that makes goods easy to confuse with drugs or medical devices.

The penalties can be large. For a non-compliant label they run from CN¥ 10,000 to 30,000 on goods worth under CN¥ 10,000 and from three to ten times their value above that, although flaws that neither affect safety nor mislead are ordered corrected. For false advertising they are three to five times the advertising cost. We found no penalty against a PDRN product in China and no national regulator's notice naming terms such as "water-light injection" (水光针), but Korea's regulator has found rising numbers of PDRN advertising violations, most for wording that could make a cosmetic look like a drug.

We do not claim that this language fails to sell, and comparing a cream with a treatment is an argument in use in posts about PDRN. We believe the case against it rests on compliance and on long-term trust, and that the legal exposure looks greatest here. The rules are set out in our article on salmon and clinic words.

Which price should a PDRN brand choose in China?#

Brands should decide where in the price range a product is built to sit, and plan what will justify that price. On the two marketplaces measured in both years, sales at CN¥ 200 to 399 rose about two and a half times in a year, about half the market's pace there, while sales under CN¥ 200 and at CN¥ 400 and over rose at least fivefold, with gift sets carrying much of the rise at the top.

At the lower end, brands should expect competition on price and should not count on the ingredient's name to carry a premium. At CN¥ 400 and over, imported products and gift sets are a large part of sales, and a brand without a known name needs proof it can stand behind. No survey we found measures how much more buyers would pay for that proof, so brands should test it in the market before building a price on it. The full price picture is in the average price of PDRN skincare.

How should ingredient makers prepare for recombinant and plant PDRN?#

Ingredient makers and research teams should prepare the evidence and the labelling for non-animal PDRN now, so that the difference can be explained when buyers start to ask. Chinese ingredient makers say they can now make fermented and recombinant PDRN, and a global brand has launched a line built on it, while the best sellers still name salmon or nothing. Recombinant PDRN may gain ground on salmon as supply grows.

We will next watch whether recombinant and plant PDRN reach the titles of the best sellers, and whether buyers keep paying high prices for single products as well as for gift sets as more brands arrive.

How PDRN reached China is in What is PDRN?, the sales in China's online PDRN skincare sales, the conversation in posts about PDRN, and the wider category in our H1 2026 China beauty report. The recommendations in full, with their limits, are in the full report.