Avantamine provides an innovative solution to stabilize hypochlorous acid (HOCl), increasing its high concentration and long-lasting effects on the skin.
When your body is attacked by a pathogen (bacteria, fungi, or virus) and you develop a skin infection, your immune system prompts your white blood cells to produce a compound called hypochlorous acid. Hypochlorous acid selectively kills pathogens, promotes tissue repair, and degrades them harmlessly. Our skin reacts perfectly to it. Because nature has evolved this specific pathogen-killing compound to protect us.
It is an ideal preservative.
Unsurprisingly, hypochlorous acid (HOCl) skin care products can be found on store shelves everywhere, in sprays, toners, mists, and gels to treat conditions such as eczema, itch, and acne. Many of these skin diseases have a pathogen, usually a bacteria, that causes or worsens the symptoms.
For example, acne is often caused by or exacerbated by the presence of the bacterium Cutibacterium acnes. HOCl is an oxidizing disinfectant that kills bacteria, similar to benzoyl peroxide, one of the most common acne treatments. The comparable effectiveness of HOCl and benzoyl peroxide for mild to moderate inflammatory acne has been established in clinical trials¹. However, HOCl has several advantages over benzoyl peroxide. The biocompatibility of HOCl means that allergic reactions are less likely to occur, and HOCl also actively promotes skin barrier repair, making the skin less prone to drying out. Another clinical study showed that HOCl is effective against itching associated with eczema. ² Clinical and laboratory studies have shown multiple pathways by which HOCl modulates the skin’s inflammatory response and how effective HOCl is against pathogens such as bacteria that cause acne and eczema.
HOCl seems like a great addition to your skin care routine.
HOCl is missing one thing
However, HOCl, which is made outside of our bodies in labs and available on store shelves, lacks a key property: stability. Our bodies solve this problem by producing HOCl on demand as needed, but outside the body HOCl is rapidly broken down. This instability creates two drawbacks to using HOCl as a topical application to the skin. First, HOCl is consumed quickly and does not have the desired long-term effects, so it must be administered multiple times a day to maintain its effectiveness. Second, HOCl can only be sold in bottles of low concentration liquid.

Concentration increases efficiency. The more the better, especially when it comes to killing pathogens such as bacteria. When the human immune system kills pathogens, HOCl is produced at a rate of 5,000 ppm per minute. Current HOCl skin care products are sold in concentrations between 100ppm and 250ppm, which is less than one-tenth the concentration used by our bodies. This is simply not enough HOCl to make much of a difference. That may be why 500ppm HOCl failed to meet its primary endpoint for treating eczema in a large Phase II clinical trial. ⁴ There is a reason why the human body uses higher concentrations of HOCl.
Introducing Avantamine
Avantamine is the first new disinfectant chemical in half a century and overcomes the shortcomings of HOCl. AvantGuard, a biotechnology company focused on increasing the effectiveness of hypochlorous acid (HOCl), has developed Avantamine to stabilize and deliver HOCl, allowing higher concentrations of activity to be safely maintained on the skin.
Avantamine as a HOCl delivery system is also biologically inspired. In the 1990s, researchers realized that the body stabilizes HOCl by combining it with taurine, an amino acid found in high concentrations in white blood cells, to form taurine chloramine. Previous scientists have attempted to artificially replicate taurine chloramine, but were still unable to produce a storable solution. However, Avant Guard scientists created Avantamine by combining sulfonic acids and chloramines, standard skin care ingredients for exfoliation, skin regeneration, and UV protection. Avantamine stabilizes HOCl as a compound that can continuously maintain HOCl on the skin as a topical treatment.
Avantamine difference
The avantamine delivery system alleviates the two main drawbacks of HOCl by (1) allowing high concentrations of HOCl to be applied on demand and (2) providing long-lasting effects.
concentration
Avantamine’s stabilizing properties make it safe for skin at concentrations 100 times higher than current HOCl products. Again, most HOCl skin care products are sold in concentrations between 100ppm and 250ppm. By comparison, AvantGuard regularly tests Avantamine concentrations from 3,000ppm to 12,000ppm, which is within the range of the human immune system, to ensure that it does not cause skin irritation or slow wound healing. This means that Avantamine performs better than the HOCl product because more Avantamine is available.
interval
Another factor that affects effectiveness is time. The longer you do something, the more likely it is to work out. Avantamine acts as a sustained release mechanism for HOCl, extending the time that HOCl can be active on the skin. In simulated skin tests, a single application of 12,000 ppm Avantamine still measured 140 ppm after 10 hours, higher than the starting concentration of many HOCl products. Looking at it another way, the consistency of Avantamine over 24 hours is comparable to reapplying HOCl every 5 minutes throughout the day. (Figure 1) At the same time, Avantamine can simply be washed off with water if necessary. These properties make Avantamine the only disinfectant with strong residual potency, consistently reducing inflammation and killing bacteria.

The increased stability provides two other benefits. Avantamine’s stabilizing effect on HOCl reduces nonspecific oxidation. Nonspecific oxidation is most pronounced when fabrics are bleached due to oxidation of organic dyes in the fabric, as opposed to oxidation of the bacterial wall. The downside to oxidizing chemicals like HOCl and benzoyl peroxide is that they can bleach fabrics. In our fabric bleaching tests, HOCl clearly bleaches fabrics at 800ppm. Avantamine, on the other hand, remains unchanged even with an almost 10-fold increase in concentration to 5,000 ppm. (Figure 2) A possible side benefit is that using avantamine to kill pathogens rather than HOCl leaves more pathogen-fighting material behind.

A second additional advantage is that the pH rules for Avantamine are completely different, as its inherent stability allows it to be effective over a wide pH range. Standard HOCl is only viable between pH 4 and pH 6.5 before it is converted to other chemical forms. Avantamine has the same effect over a wide pH range of 2-9. This allows for greater flexibility in formulating products suitable for different skin conditions. For example, when you have eczema, your skin’s pH often increases from a normal pH of 5 to more than 7. Lowering the pH speeds recovery, and HOCl at pH 4 or 5 is also effective, but a solution at pH 2 helps adjust the skin’s pH faster. That is not possible with HOCl, but possible with Avantamine.
HOCl is good, Avantamine is good
HOCl is already gaining popularity as a new skin care product with the potential to treat conditions such as acne, eczema, itch, psoriasis, and rosacea. But the more the better. And the longer the better. With Avantamine, you get the natural effects of HOCl on your skin, but at up to 100 times more potent concentrations, which can provide long-lasting effects without sacrificing safety or side effects like bleaching clothes. There are no secret drawbacks. Avantamine is just an upgrade, the next step for healthy skin. HOCl is the perfect disinfectant with broad-spectrum antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects, and mimicking the immune system with stable, on-demand, sustained-release HOCl, or Avantamine, is an important step forward in protecting your skin and yourself.
References
Tirado-Sanchez, A. Ponce-Olivera, RM Efficacy and tolerance of superoxidized solutions in the treatment of mild to moderate inflammatory acne. Double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, randomized clinical trial. J Dermatolog Treat 2009, 20 (5), 289–292. DOI: 10.1080/09546630902973995 From NLM. Berman, B. Nestor, M. Investigator-blinded randomized study evaluating HOCl in the treatment of atopic dermatitis-associated pruritus. SKIN Dermatology Journal 2017, 1, s40–s40. Hypochlorous acid: Dermatological applications: We review the dermatological applications of hypochlorous acid, including infection prevention, wound care, scar management, inflammation regulation, and treatment of atopic dermatitis and pruritus. Journal of Integrative Dermatology 2022, 1 (1). DOI: 10.64550/joid.1d4y5r09 (accessed %2025/%08/%25). Nawrat, A. Realm Therapeutics announces Phase II failure of PR022 in severe eczema. Pharmaceutical Technology: 2018.
Please note: This is a commercial profile
This article will also be published in the quarterly magazine issue 25.
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