Cadu-Crex

Cadu-Crex is a Swiss haircare line specialising in topical anti-hair-loss treatments sold mainly through pharmacies. It is one of the proprietary brands of Labo Suisse, the dermo-cosmetic company founded in Basel in 1986 [1][2], and sits alongside the company's better-known Crescina and Fillerina lines. The range centres on single-dose vials and a companion shampoo, formulated for cosmetic rather than pharmaceutical use and built around a penetration method the company markets as Transdermic Technology.

The year the Cadu-Crex line itself was created is not documented. The parent company's own history records 1986 as the founding of Labo Suisse in Basel [3]; no available source dates the launch of the Cadu-Crex sub-brand specifically, so its own founding year remains unrecorded. The brand is active: Cadu-Crex remains in the current Labo Suisse portfolio, with product pages and ingredient listings maintained on the company's site into 2025.

Cadu-Crex is not a standalone company but a sub-brand within the Labo Suisse group. Its product pages identify the parent as Labo International Srl, the Italian arm of the business [1]. A third-party industry profile describes Labo International as the Italian subsidiary of the Swiss company Labo Cosprophar AG, which it calls a leader in the pharmacy market behind premium lines such as Crescina and Fillerina [10]. The group operates across Swiss and Italian entities and reports a network of exclusive distributors in 44 countries [10].

The wider Labo Suisse portfolio is large and hair- and skin-focused, spanning Crescina, Fillerina, Rinfoltina, Oxy-Treat and others, with Cadu-Crex positioned as the line addressing heavier, excessive hair loss.

Labo Suisse positions itself in premium dermo-cosmetics "inspired by aesthetic medicine," favouring non-invasive products that aim to rival clinical procedures without injection. Cadu-Crex applies that idea to hair loss: the company recommends it for anyone wishing to counteract excessive shedding, and frames it as a topical alternative to more interventionist approaches.

The company draws a clear line between its two hair lines. Cadu-Crex targets excessive hair loss, whereas Crescina is presented as addressing thinning from physiological causes; one Labo page notes that the Hair Follicular Islands variant of Cadu-Crex is generally aimed at a younger audience or those wanting a more complete treatment. The brand's stated promise is summarised in its tagline, "Helps reduce the hair loss. Promotes the hair re-growth" [1]. Labo also frames shedding itself as normal, observing that daily hair loss can amount to around 100 strands and that losing more than 50 to 100 hairs a day over several weeks signals strain on the hair.

The core product is Cadu-Crex Hair Loss, a topical treatment supplied in vials for cosmetic use [2]. It comes in three intensities — Initial, Advanced and Serious Hair Loss — with separate formulations for men and women and pack sizes covering one- and two-month courses. The protocol is regimented: one vial applied to dry hair daily for five consecutive days, followed by a two-day break, left in without rinsing, and labelled strictly for external use. Treatment is meant to run for at least two months and can be repeated through the year.

A companion product, the Cadu-Crex Anti-Hair Loss Shampoo, is built around what the company calls a patented Anti-Hair Loss Complex and is presented as a cleansing-phase complement to the vials, also offered in men's and women's versions across the same three levels.

The formulations are built on a set of active ingredients the company lists as Hydroxyproline, Aspartic Acid, an enzymatic activator and Taurine, enriched with Crescina-derived components such as Cysteine, Lysine and a glycoprotein. According to Labo, the vial treatment incorporates 20% of the Crescina Re-Growth formula. The company states that the products help reduce hair loss and promote regrowth, while being explicit about the limits it claims: the treatment is described as useful for preventing and reducing physiological, non-pathological hair loss and as having no effect on completely atrophied follicles.

Cadu-Crex is marketed around Transdermic Technology, the delivery method Labo describes as using low-molecular-weight actives with three enhancers to carry ingredients into the scalp by both trans-follicular and transdermal routes. The company says this technology has been implemented across all its products since 2015 [4]. A related concept, the Hair Follicular Islands Complex, is described as targeting hair loss in both individual follicles and grouped "follicular islands."

The brand presents laboratory support for the delivery claim. Labo reports ex vivo penetration testing using Franz cells, citing absorption figures for individual ingredients — for example Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein at 85.2%, Aspartic Acid at 75.7% and Hydroxyproline at 69.5% [2]. At the group level, Labo says it has developed and tested 216 active molecules and completed several hundred clinical, in vitro and ex vivo studies, and that it holds dozens of Swiss patents and two European patents [4].

Several of these patents are attached to Cadu-Crex specifically. The brand cites a portfolio of five — Swiss patents CH 693 817, CH 693 816, CH 710 438 and CH 711 466, and European patent EP 1 646 359 — covering the anti-hair-loss formulation, the follicular-islands treatment and the Transdermic delivery method [5].

Cadu-Crex is an active line within the Labo Suisse portfolio. Its products remain listed with current ingredient information on the company's site, which carried an accessibility statement dated to late 2025, and it is sold through pharmacies and specialist resellers rather than mainstream beauty retail. Beyond product-channel listings, the brand has little independent editorial coverage; no Wikipedia entry exists for Cadu-Crex, and the available record is drawn almost entirely from the company's own material and a single industry directory.