Stats, Stats, Stats – Botox

According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), in 2007 the number one nonsurgical cosmetic procedure was the Botox injection – 2,775,176 of those to be precise. 

But the real interesting numbers behind Botox concern its cost:

– a vial costs manufacturers about $40

– it is sold for about $400 to doctors

– doctors can generate a revenue of up to $4000, charging as much as $1000 per injection, treating up to three-four patients.

 (source: aboardcertifiedplasticsurgeonresource.com) 

As Alex Kuczynski explains in her book Beauty Junkies,

Part of Botox’s incredible popularity is that it is a cash cow for doctors. […] Because its use is a cosmetic procedure, there are no health insurance hassles to deal with. And it is time efficient: “You can do a patient in 10 minutes, and you can run people in all day long,” an analyst for the pharmaceutical industry told me. “There is probably not another treatment that is so profitable for doctors.” Any doctor – and in some [U.S.] states, dentists – can legally administer it.”

 

And of course, nobody ever talks about its side effects.

A few interesting bits of trivia I discovered about Botox:

•  ”During the 1980s and 1990s botulinum toxin (= Botox) was a key part of Iraq’s biological weapon cache. (source: Beauty Junkies, p. 34)
• Side effects may include “difficulty breathing,” face numbness, inability to swallow, piercing headaches, slurred speech, nausea difficulty holding up one’s head. And in some extreme cases, death. (sources: CNN, botoxforum.com)
• Allergan, the chief manufacturer of Botox, has repeatedly been fined by the FDA for misleading marketing and advertising – promoting Botox for uses other than those approved by the FDA. Because of the large profits of Allergan, the fines ultimately proved to be a mere “drop in the bucket” (source: Beauty Junkies, p. 51)