Cutano

Cutano is a German pharmacy skincare line for face and body, made up of balms, creams, a body lotion and a soap-free wash. It belongs to Dermapharm AG, a pharmaceutical manufacturer based in Grünwald near Munich, which is named as the responsible company on the products [2]. The line has no website of its own and is presented inside its owner's catalogue of non-prescription products, where it appears alongside Dermapharm's medicines and health products.

The range is built around one idea: care formulated to sit within the skin's natural pH range, using the same small set of ingredients across every product. Dermapharm markets it as dermatologically tested and suitable for the whole family, from babies to adults. Cutano is still on sale, but it has changed little in recent years, and the newest dated product news about the line goes back to 2007.

The founders of Cutano and the year it was created are not documented. What is known comes from its owner and from the German pharmacy trade press. A 2018 report in the trade publication APOTHEKE ADHOC stated that Dermapharm had carried Cutano, then a care series with a balm and a wash lotion, since 2002 [10]. That date marks how long the line had been in Dermapharm's range, not necessarily when the brand itself was first created.

The same report placed Cutano in a wider context. When Dermapharm launched a new skincare brand called Physiotop in 2018, the publication described it as the company's second skincare brand, which makes Cutano the first [10]. A company spokesperson told the publication that launching a care series had been overdue, explaining that Dermapharm was known as a skin specialist with medicines.

The best-documented chapter in Cutano's history is from 2007. According to a Dermapharm press release published that September, the company gave the Cutano care series a new fragrance in April 2007 and then added a bath oil, the Cutano Ölbad, at the start of the autumn [9]. The release presented the oil as a product for the cold season, when dry heated air and sudden shifts between indoor and outdoor temperatures can strain the skin. In the bath water, the company said, the oils form a fine emulsion that cleanses the skin gently and leaves a thin protective layer behind. The release also described the bath oil as suitable for children.

The same release stated that the complete care series was available only in pharmacies [9]. That model has held since: the line is still sold through pharmacies, and Dermapharm's current catalogue points buyers to partner online pharmacies.

Over time the range has narrowed. An undated Cutano product leaflet lists a solid wash bar of 100 g and a 500 ml liquid wash in both a pump dispenser and a refill pack, alongside the balm, cream and lotion. None of those formats appears in Dermapharm's current product catalogue, and the bath oil is no longer listed either.

Cutano is owned by Dermapharm AG, a manufacturer of branded medicines founded in 1991 and headquartered in Grünwald, a town near Munich [5]. According to the company's 2007 profile, it moved its head office to Grünwald in 1998 and from the outset focused on making and selling dermatological and allergy medicines. Dermapharm describes its business as integrated: it develops and produces its products in-house and sells them through a pharmaceutically trained field sales team.

The group's central site for developing, making and shipping medicines and health products is mibe GmbH Arzneimittel in Brehna, near Leipzig, where Dermapharm says more than 570 people are employed [7]. The company has not stated where Cutano itself is manufactured. The group also has branches in Switzerland and Austria.

Trade reporting from 2018 describes Dermapharm as a generics manufacturer founded by Wilhelm Beier that has grown through numerous acquisitions [10]. Among those named were a product range bought from Jenapharm in 2003, the Hübner group taken over from Nordzucker in 2011, the reimporter Axicorp, part of the group since 2012, and the Lactostop brand acquired from Dr. Fischer. The same coverage noted that Dermapharm's stock-market listing had raised gross proceeds of 377 million euros.

Within Dermapharm, Cutano sits alongside several other skin and personal-care brands, including Cloderm, Melasan, Physiotop, Sikapur and Tebamol.

The closest of these is Physiotop, launched in 2018 as Dermapharm's second skincare line. The two brands take different approaches. Physiotop was developed in-house, is made in Brehna, and is aimed at dry, irritated and itchy skin and at people prone to atopic eczema. It is built on what the company calls ortholamellar technology, and its products contain no preservatives, fragrance, colourants, paraffins or parabens [10]. Cutano, by contrast, is a general family care line, and its products are lightly fragranced.

Dermapharm presents Cutano as a dermatologically tested skin-protection and care series developed for the needs of the skin. The company says the range suits the whole family and healthy skin at any age.

The line's central idea is pH. According to the product leaflet, every Cutano product has a skin-friendly pH within the skin's biological pH range [4]. The leaflet explains the reasoning in everyday terms. Skin, it says, faces daily strain from dry indoor air, stress, environmental factors and too much sun, and excessive washing, showering and bathing can break down its protective film. The result, in the company's account, is skin that dries out, becomes irritated and ages early. The leaflet's heading sums up the message: beautiful skin is no accident.

A customer brochure dated 2016 sets out a more playful voice. It describes well-cared-for skin as "our first and most important 'garment'" [3], and extends the clothing metaphor throughout. The cover presents the range as a summer, autumn, winter and spring "collection" for cared-for skin, and as "what men and women are wearing now". Individual products carry fashion-style captions, such as "perfectly wrapped" and "velvet and silk".

The brand's tagline, "Fühlbar schön. Einfach anziehend.", roughly means "Noticeably beautiful. Simply attractive." The German word anziehend means attractive, but it is built on anziehen, to put on clothes, so the tagline doubles as a nod to the brochure's wardrobe theme.

The brochure also presents Cutano as exclusive to pharmacies, telling readers that the range is available "exclusively in your pharmacy".

Dermapharm's current catalogue lists four Cutano products, all sold without a prescription. Each one is a variation on a basic routine of washing and moisturising.

- Cutano Waschpflege flüssig (200 ml) is a liquid wash that the company describes as intensive but gentle and free of soap and alkali. It produces a creamy foam with a mild scent. The leaflet says it can be used for bathing and showering, for intimate hygiene and in a baby's bath, and that it contains re-fatting ingredients so the skin is not stripped. - Cutano Pflegebalsam (150 ml) is a rich water-in-oil emulsion for intensive care of the whole body. The leaflet recommends it for normal to dry skin and says that because it soaks in slowly, it protects the skin from moisture loss for longer. - Cutano Pflegecreme (50 ml) is a water-in-oil cream for the face, hands and areas of skin under strain. Dermapharm says it balances the skin's moisture and oil levels and adds to its natural oils, and recommends it for baby and children's skin as well as normal and dry skin. - Cutano Pflegemilch (200 ml) is a light oil-in-water body lotion, which the company calls a quick-care product for refreshing the skin between other routines. It is recommended for oily skin.

The split between water-in-oil formulas for drier skin and an oil-in-water lotion for oilier skin is the main way the range distinguishes its products.

All Cutano products share the same core ingredients. According to the leaflet, each contains a combination of chamomile extract, panthenol and lactic acid [4].

Beyond the claim that the products are dermatologically tested, no third-party certifications are documented.

Cutano does not set out sustainability commitments of its own. Its customer brochure carries a statement from Dermapharm saying that the group produces its medicines and cosmetics in an environmentally sound way and uses environmentally friendly materials wherever possible [3].

Cutano is active. As of October 2026, Dermapharm lists four Cutano products as freely available without a prescription in its German catalogue, with links to partner online pharmacies, and the line also appears in the company's Austrian catalogue [8]. The line is not documented as sold outside those two countries.

The line appears to be maintained rather than developed. The most recent dated product news concerning Cutano is the 2007 launch of the bath oil, and the line's last dated mention in the trade press is the 2018 report on Physiotop. Several formats from earlier years, including the bath oil, the solid wash bar and the larger liquid-wash packs, are no longer offered.