Jeffrey Plumer, general counsel of Evolus Inc., believes the medical aesthetics firm is transitioning from its startup roots to a more mature phase as a well-established public company (Nasdaq: EOLS) in Orange County.
Plumer, a 2024 winner at the Business Journal’s General Counsel Awards, has witnessed the Newport Beach company’s evolution. Major company milestones over the past several years include Evolus’ 2018 initial public offering, the challenging journey of launching its flagship neurotoxin product and its recent expansion into international markets.
“In each of those moments of growth was me having to take out a new toolkit and just learn the way through. Whether it’s a crisis, whether it’s hard times or even some of the great times,” he told the Business Journal.
From Outsider to Insider
Plumer first worked as outside counsel for the firm’s parent company Alphaeon Corp.
As Evolus was preparing for its initial public offering, the company asked him to come in-house in 2014.
Plumer had previous experience working on several companies’ IPOs during his time at K&L Gates.
“What I loved is I got to immerse myself in these companies, get to know them, but then as soon as they did their IPO, they were gone,” Plumer said.
At Evolus, he said he could satisfy his curiosity of what it would be like to shepherd a company through a public listing and following it “through its entire life.”
Plumer also saw the in-house job at Evolus as a chance to grow his existing skillset in areas such as compliance and international contracts or product licensing and acquisitions.
Having reported its first-ever operating profit ahead of schedule in August, Evolus is only getting started. Its current market cap is $814 million with shares trading around $12 apiece at press time, up 22% year-to-date.
Making a little over $200 million in revenue last year, Evolus is targeting $700 million by 2028.
“We’re in the infancy of our international launch,” Plumer said. “We’ve put a target out there for 2028 that we want our international business to be at $100 million.”
The company is also on the verge of a new product launch for next year, sliding into the medical device field for the first time which will require Plumer to focus on a different layer of regulation compared to pharmaceuticals. It will be the latest addition to its product portfolio, following its first aesthetic neurotoxin product Jeuveau.
The Botox rival is an injection used to improve the appearance of frown lines between the eyebrows.
“For me, that’s a whole new world.”
A Business Worth Protecting
Plumer originally thought he would be a litigator when he first started law school at the University of California, Davis.
He later experienced both litigation and corporate law during the beginning of his career at Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth. When it came to the possibility of becoming general counsel, Plumer said it was an idea that he had to investigate.
“Some of my first exposure actually was going to some of the early OCBJ General Counsel Awards,” he said. “It was through the process of getting to meet some different general counsels, understanding what it meant to be an in-house counsel that I started to even be open to it.”
He was vice president of legal and corporate secretary at Evolus for six years until 2020, when he was appointed general counsel.
Now he oversees all legal and compliance matters for the company, including work which resulted in the FDA’s 2019 approval of Jeuveau.
During his promotion, the company was also dealing with its biggest hurdle yet: an international trade case that would prohibit Evolus from importing its only product. The case targeted the overseas manufacturer of Jeuveau, forcing Plumer to fly to South Korea several times while settlement talks began to happen.
“Throughout it all, we always thought as a leadership team that we have a business here that’s worth protecting,” Plumer said. “Had we gone the litigation route, who knows what would have happened.”
The case was settled in 2021, allowing Jeuveau to remain in the market.
Plumer was also thankful for Chief Executive David Moatazedi’s positive drive during those initial years.
“A lot of the credit goes to our CEO because lawyers, I think by nature, are a little bit pessimistic. [He was] the ultimate optimist,” he said.
Here to Stay
When it comes to the legal intrigue of his job, Plumer pointed to Evolus’ place at the intersection of health and beauty.
“Your end consumer thinks of this as a beauty treatment, because you’re getting rid of wrinkles, but the FDA views it as a drug and dangerous,” he said.
He recalls when he first arrived at the company being impressed by Jeuveau as a new neurotoxin that could challenge Botox. He thought that it gave Evolus a lot of runway in a market where consumers are paying for healthcare products they want rather than need.
Last year, Plumer negotiated a licensing deal for Evolus to be the exclusive U.S. distributor of a line of five dermal fillers called Evolysse. The product is currently in late-stage development.
The new injections will be rolled out and launched over the next several years.
Plumer is also credited for negotiating terms for Evolus to commercially distribute in international markets. Its activity abroad began in Great Britain and Europe in 2022 and most recently extended operations to Australia in July.
“We want to be one of those Orange County public companies that’s here to stay,” he said.
