Gouri: The 'Liquid PCL' Injectable, Where It Is Approved, and Why PubMed Has No Study Under Its Name

Gouri is an injectable sold as a collagen stimulator made of polycaprolactone (PCL) — the same slowly dissolving polymer as the filler Ellansé — but presented by its maker as a liquid, with no particles. About 830 Americans a month search for it (clickstream estimate, October 2026), although it has no US approval. This page sets out what its maker states, where it is approved, what the indexed literature holds, and what is missing, as of 20 October 2026. It makes no recommendation; whether any injectable suits someone is a question for a licensed clinician.

Who makes it, and what is claimed

Gouri is made by Dexlevo Inc., a Seoul company that describes itself as a manufacturer of polymer-based aesthetic devices, established in 2013. Its exhibitor listing for the IMCAS World Congress 2025, read on 20 October 2026, makes four statements about the product:

• that Gouri is "the 1st liquid-type PCL (Polycaprolactone) injectable";
• that it "spreads naturally into the entire skin after injection";
• that it "restores collagen levels that have decreased due to skin aging";
• that it "obtained a CE certificate as a medical device in 2021".

The listing attributes the liquid form to a patented technology the company calls CESABP, which it says enables collagen regeneration "without using micro-particles". It does not give the composition beyond polycaprolactone, a concentration, or a duration. These are the manufacturer's statements; none has been tested in a published controlled trial.

The design claim matters because it is the product's point of difference. In particle fillers — polycaprolactone microspheres in Ellansé, poly-L-lactic acid in Sculptra, calcium hydroxylapatite in Radiesse — the particle is what the body reacts to, and the collagen response is described as building around it. A particle-free polymer has to work some other way, and no published study has measured how.

Where it is approved

The Korean report also repeats the "world's first liquid-type PCL" description. We could not open the maker's own product site on 20 October 2026 (the request timed out), so the CE certificate number, notified body and the approved indication remain unread. A CE certificate means a European notified body has assessed the device against the EU's rules; it is not the same thing as an FDA approval, which for a filler requires a randomized trial.

In the United States, FDA's adverse-event database held no report naming Gouri. It held one report naming its maker: received on 6 April 2026, it concerns a different Dexlevo product sold as a "skin booster", injected in 2024, and describes complications on the face and the patient's later discovery that the product was not FDA-approved. A single voluntary report establishes neither cause nor frequency.

What the literature holds

A PubMed search for "gouri" in the title or abstract returned 5 records on 20 October 2026. None is about the injectable: one names a new earthworm species, Drawida gouri; one lists Gouri as a rice variety; one is an infertility guideline reviewed by a doctor whose first name is Gouri; the other two are a palm-leaf manuscript of Ayurvedic formulas and a 2002 description of a fish parasite. A search for the maker returned one record. So the product has no indexed study under its own name.

Searching for the material instead finds three human reports that describe a liquid or particle-free polycaprolactone injectable without naming a brand:

None of the three has a comparison group, none was a trial, and the largest includes seven people. The case report's conclusion that liquid PCL "appears to outperform other bio-stimulators" rests on one patient and no comparator. The periorbital pilot reports trends in three people. The bruising series is the only paper with a stated link to the maker, and it is about a complication.

The bruising series is worth reading in full by anyone considering under-eye treatment. Its authors describe bruising that persisted for months — which they say had not been reported before — and attribute it to pigment trapped in the dense polymer scaffold or to a light-scattering (Tyndall) effect. Treatments used included pigment lasers, radiofrequency and focused ultrasound, saline washout, massage, and the enzymes hyaluronidase and lipase. All seven cases resolved, and the authors report no serious adverse event. Because it is a case series, it cannot say how often this happens.

In the trial registry

ClinicalTrials.gov lists two Dexlevo-sponsored trials, read on 20 October 2026, but neither names Gouri. NCT06376838 compared a product coded DLMR01 with the polynucleotide injectable Rejuran in 218 people's crow's feet in Korea (randomized, split-face, completed May 2023, no results posted). A paper reporting a crow's-feet comparison of DLMR01 with a polynucleotide filler was retracted in March 2026 at its authors' request: the retraction notice says DLMR01 had been misidentified in the paper as pegylated polycaprolactone when it is "composed solely of pure PCL", which "undermines the reliability of the study's findings" (PMID 41834780). Neither the registry record nor the notice says whether DLMR01 is Gouri. NCT06885775 plans to compare a polycaprolactone and carboxymethylcellulose filler coded DXP01 with a hyaluronic-acid filler in 80 people's nasolabial folds in Romania; it was listed as not yet recruiting. Its description — PCL in a cellulose gel — is the particle-filler design, not the liquid one Gouri is sold on. Neither record can be read as a trial of Gouri.

What is and is not established

Established: Gouri is a polycaprolactone injectable from Dexlevo, described by its maker as particle-free and liquid; it has a European CE certificate (2021, per the maker) and Korean approval (per a 2025 news report); it has no FDA record; no indexed study names it; three small uncontrolled reports describe a liquid polycaprolactone injectable, one of them a series of prolonged bruising.

Not established: what Gouri contains beyond polycaprolactone and at what concentration; how a particle-free polymer stimulates collagen, if it does; whether it outperforms or matches any other filler or no treatment; how long any effect lasts; and how often complications occur. How the approved biostimulators compare, with their trial records, is on our biostimulators page.

Sources

• IMCAS World Congress 2025, exhibitor listing for DEXLEVO (imcas.com), read 2026-10-20.
• Segye Ilbo, report on Dexlevo and GOURI, published 2025-11-04 (segye.com/newsView/20251104516569), read 2026-10-20.
• US FDA premarket approval, 510(k), device identification (GUDID) and MAUDE adverse-event databases via openFDA, searched for Gouri and Dexlevo, 2026-10-20.
• Dimonitsas E, Albanopoulou A, Neamonitou F, et al. Liquid polycaprolactone (PCL) for reversing PXE's skin laxity of inner thighs and knees: a case report. J Cosmet Dermatol 2025;24(2):e16713. PMID 39703099.
• Choe SJ, Han JH, Darmawan I, Keum DI. Periorbital structural and functional modulation following liquid-type polycaprolactone treatment: a pilot study. J Clin Med 2026;15(11):4303. PMID 42279164.
• Byeon H, Baek H, Vachiramon V, et al. A case series of rare long-term bruising following injection of liquid-form polycaprolactone: mechanisms and therapeutic insights. Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol 2026;19:571602. PMID 41869420.
• Retraction notice: A randomized, participant- and evaluator-blinded, matched-pair, prospective study comparing the safety and efficacy between polycaprolactone and polynucleotide fillers in the correction of crow's feet. J Cosmet Dermatol 2026;25(3):e70794. PMID 41834780.
• ClinicalTrials.gov records NCT06376838 and NCT06885775, read 2026-10-20. PubMed searches gouri[tiab] (5 records, each read) and dexlevo[tiab] OR dexlevo[ad] (1 record), run 2026-10-20.