Abicare

Abicare (styled AbiCare) is a Finnish skincare line built around extract from Norway spruce resin. It is not a standalone company but the cosmetic, over-the-counter self-care sub-brand of Repolar Pharmaceuticals Oy, a dermo-pharmaceutical firm based in Espoo, Finland. The line is sold through pharmacies and centres on two products: an emulsion cream for acne-prone skin and an anti-dandruff shampoo.

Repolar separates Abicare from its medical-device products. Where the company's Abilar wound salve and Abicin antifungal lacquer carry CE marking, Abicare is classified as cosmetic self-care, sold over the counter at pharmacies rather than as a regulated drug or device.

The Abicare line grew out of Repolar's wider spruce-resin research. The parent company was founded in 2006 by the Sipponen family of doctors, working with several colleagues [3]. Its origin traces to Finnish Lapland, where orthopaedic specialist Arno Sipponen began practising as a general practitioner in 2002 and noticed local residents treating wounds with home-made spruce-resin salve. He worked with his father, who led the clinical pathology unit at Helsinki University Central Hospital, and assembled an interdisciplinary group to study spruce resin as a wound treatment. The company describes the core finding as a resin salve, made without heating, that was antimicrobial and safe to use.

Abicare itself dates from later. The line is built on Resol Technology, a non-sticky spruce-resin solution that Repolar developed in 2013, so the products launched no earlier than that year. The exact launch year of the Abicare line is not publicly disclosed. The line's origin should therefore be distinguished from the parent company: Repolar's own founding is recorded as 2006, while the Abicare products themselves date to 2013 at the earliest [3].

Abicare is owned and manufactured by Repolar Pharmaceuticals Oy, with a head office in Espoo and secondary operations in Kolari, in Finnish Lapland. The line sits within Repolar's human-care portfolio alongside the Abilar wound salve, the Abicin antifungal lacquer and the Abicare anti-dandruff shampoo.

In August 2024, Evolver Equity, described as a growth partner for Nordic small and medium-sized businesses, took a growth-partnership stake in Repolar; the amount was not disclosed [8]. The reporting framed the deal as backing for expansion in the Nordic wound-care market and in European and global export, rather than a wind-down [8]. At the time, the founders were re-confirmed as Arno Sipponen, Lauri Sipponen and Janne Jokinen, and the company's chief executive was named as Paavo Heikkinen [8].

The Abicare line comprises two consumer products. The Abicare ACNE emulsion cream is described by the company as a soothing, moisturising and skin-renewing cream made from natural ingredients, intended for sensitive, irritated, broken and acne-prone skin [4]. It is sold in a 30 ml format. The Abicare Shampoo is positioned as a soothing anti-dandruff shampoo for itchy, dry and irritated scalps; according to Repolar it is fragrance- and dye-free and suitable for all hair types.

The shared active across the line is extract from Picea abies, the Norway spruce, listed in both products as Picea Abies Resin Extract. The acne cream also contains vitamin E (as DL-α-tocopheryl acetate) and the seaweed-derived Chondrus crispus, while the shampoo pairs the resin extract with piroctone olamine, a common anti-dandruff agent. Repolar notes that the products are unsuitable for anyone sensitive to rosin (colophonium).

For the acne cream, the company cites laboratory and clinical findings: it states the cream has been found to reduce the growth of acne bacteria in a laboratory setting, to achieve a statistically significant reduction in the number of pimples, and to support the skin's own renewal by boosting skin-cell protein synthesis [4]. Finnish pharmacy editorials summarise the clinical evidence as a reduction in pustules of more than 50 percent, reported as statistically significant, though the underlying study is not cited by name [10].

Repolar markets Abicare as Finnish-made; the Finnish product pages use the word kotimainen (domestic), and the company's products carry the Finnish Key Flag (Avainlippu) accreditation that verifies domestic manufacture. The spruce resin used in production is, the company says, collected by hand in Finnish Lapland "with reverence for nature and without harming the trees" [3]. Repolar also operates an ISO 13485-certified quality-management system, the standard used for medical devices.

The line's central technology, Resol Technology, is described by Repolar as a non-sticky resin solution and is stated to be patented by the company, though the patent number is not publicly disclosed [3].

Abicare is sold over the counter at pharmacies without a prescription [1]. In Finland the acne cream is stocked by major chains including Yliopiston Apteekki, the country's university-pharmacy chain, and the online pharmacy Olo-apteekki [10][9]. The line carries localised product pages in Finnish, English, Swedish, German and Norwegian, indicating distribution across several northern European markets.

Abicare is active. Its parent, Repolar Pharmaceuticals, secured the Evolver Equity growth partnership in August 2024 for Nordic and European expansion, and the acne cream has been stocked with production batches dated for use into 2027 [8]. The product remains available through Finnish pharmacy chains.