Posted on 10/27/2007 7:23:21 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
(NEW DELHI) -- Thirty-five-year old Rekha Chaudhary went to her nearby skin clinic where the friendly doctor agreed to give her a Botox shot, to get rid of the wrinkle on her eyes. The cost was only Rs 8,000 as compared to other clinics where the treatment could cost her anything between Rs 15,000-20,000. Great deal or thats what she thought.
Soon after the treatment her eyelids started drooping. Also even after a week she did not see the wrinkles disappearing. To her horror, a visit to another dermatologist, revealed that there were cheap Chinese and Korean Botox alternatives, available in the market, which could have been used on her. And that it has side-effects.
According to Allergan, the company which manufactures Botox (brand name for Botulinum Toxin Type A), of the 25,000 non-surgical Botox procedures in India that have been done this year, around 5% have been conducted using sub-standard products claiming to be Botox.
"There are sub-standard Chinese and Korean products available in the market. These me too biological generics do not produce desired results like Botox," claims Rajeev Nagi, sales and marketing director, Allergan.
A 100 unit Botox vial is priced at Rs 16,650. On the other hand the Chinese botox is available at a price 40% less than Allergens Botox. "While Botox has been approved by 6500 clinical trials all over the world, these sub-standard products on an average have 25-30 trials only," Nagi adds.
Recalls director of Eleganza Rejuvenation Clinic, Dr Vimal Malik, who provide botox treatment; "Some distributors approached us with Chinese products saying that a 100 unit vial will cost only Rs 3,000-5,000. We didnt get lured as there is no proven track record of these products."
However, that is all he would tell ET. None of the skin clinics which provide botox treatment that we spoke to wanted to talk about the me too brands available in the market.
However sources say, these counterfeits available in the market have different names as they cannot use the name Botox. They are therefore called Botulinum Toxin type A or Botulinum Cream.
"The bottles of these products at times have a Made in China or a Made in Korea label. Some of them have Chinese inscriptions which doctors cant understand," says a cosmetic surgeon at a skin clinic, who does not want to be identified.
Agrees Kaya Skin Clinic, head of operations, Ram Iyer, There is Chinese Botox available in the market. However we have tied up with Allergan and use only the authentic botox. There are 38 Kaya skin Clinics across the country. The number of Botox procedures at Kaya Skin clinics has doubled in last one year, from two to five a day.
As the number of botox procedures increase, the fake Botox will be used even more, says Nagi. Market for Botox procedures is registering a 50% growth in India. But with 25,000 non-surgical procedures in India, it is still way behin a country like Taiwan, which registered 2,50,000 such non-surgical botox procedures this year.
In the USA, there were 3 million Botox cosmetic procedures last year. Meanwhile, Chaudhary is still getting additional treatment for the allergy that she developed a couple of days after she got the Botox injected. So before you decide on botox procedure for yourself, go ahead and bargain but check out the bottle that your skin specialist offers you.
Botox. Low level botulism.
Anyone know how they are doing? (One was maybe Doctor or something?)
They were 'victims' of same cheap, Chinese or Korean botox. Nearly killed them; and wondered afterward, given their situation if they wished it had. . .
What a story:
S. Florida botulism victims begin therapy, seek to warn others
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pkaplans05feb05,0,6487282.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Maybe I'm just too chicken to fool with Mother Nature.
Depends. On men, a few wrinkles and frown lines look distinguished. On women, they are seen as looking old and unsexy. If you're still trying to remain attractive to men in general, getting rid of some lines is an easy (though not cheap) way to help.
This isn’t only a China issue. A huge number of counterfeit drugs are made in India also.
It wouldn't seem advisable to try to look attractive to men in general, unless you work the streets. However, looking attractive to a specific man might be a good thing.
Thank you for the link about the couple paralyzed by fake botox in ‘05. I used it to search on the story and found a newer July 07 link:
http://dtasia.advanstar.com/dtasia/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=440603
A lot off bad drugs are coming from china...
The Chinese Viagra will probably
put real lead in your pencil.
Well, after all he went through, this is a disappointing comment, LOL.
So this S. FL guy, a doctor (well, really a chiropracter) goes to his buddy who WAS a "sort of" medical person ( an ex-osteopath with a suspended license and pending criminal charges) and GETS IN TROUBLE??? Who woulda thunk it?
Will 'google' them for more info. . .thanks again.
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