Beauty is in the eye of the buyer
' Beauty is in the eye of the buyer
The Inamed merger eventually will give Allergan control of a leading facial filler and the ability to provide silicone breast implants in an unrestricted ... I despise lying, Inamed they are as evil as Dow Chemical and Corning. Inamed paid their victims nothing an used Dow's toxic gel in there implants many years$$ Why were we; left out of, The Dow Settlement Plan?? The Tort Claimants Committee hasn't answered that Question to any of our satisfaction yet. I'm still waiting to hear an answer and so are hundreds of other-- 3M Mc Ghan/Inamed women an ill children!'
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/money/homepage/article_1004217.php
Allergan's pending purchase of Inamed will make the 56-year-old company one of the world's largest in the growing field of medical aesthetics.
By COURTNEY PERKES
The Orange County Register
"IT JUST MAKES YOU FEEL FRESHER": Mariann Cordova, 57, of Coto de Caza receives a Botox treatment.
IRVINE – Eileen Swift opted for breast implants 20 years ago after pregnancy deflated her chest into "little empty ski slopes."
During a facelift last year, she decided she might as well upgrade her implants to the latest silicone model.
Last week, Swift visited her plastic surgeon for some routine maintenance: Botox for her forehead furrows and injections of a dermal filler to plump out her laugh lines.
"I look good for a grandma," says Swift, a 47-year-old nurse from Rancho Santa Margarita. "I have guys in their 20s hitting on me and I like it."
The same combination of three extremely popular procedures is also making over Allergan, the Irvine company that bottles a little bit of the fountain of youth in vials of Botox Cosmetic.
The 56-year-old company with roots in ophthalmology will soon become one of the largest medical aesthetic companies in the world. Allergan is awaiting federal approval to pay $3.2 billion for Inamed, a Santa Barbara maker of breast implants, facial fillers and a stomach-shrinking band for weight loss.
The deal offers Allergan another corporate reinvention like its venture beyond cataracts to cosmetics more than a decade ago.
But the core consumer stays the same.
As sales reps pass out black baby doll T-shirts that spell Botox in rhinestones, profits from the wrinkle wonder drug fund new research for eye ailments as well as Alzheimer's disease.
"I dread to say I'm now over 50 years old," said Allergan's chief executive officer David Pyott. "This is part of my generation, the baby boomers, feeling we can live long, healthy lives. The phenomenon of look good, feel good, live forever."
The Inamed merger eventually will give Allergan control of a leading facial filler and the ability to provide silicone breast implants in an unrestricted environment. Both products sell extremely well in Europe but are awaiting Food and Drug Administration approval here.
BOTOX REVOLUTION
Swift first came to know Allergan when she swished her contact lenses in cleaning solution.
But about 10 years ago, she underwent LASIK surgery and no longer needed Allergan's products.
Then, Botox came along.
The drug comes from the same toxin that causes botulism. It's so potent that only employees cleared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can enter the company's lab.
Doctors first used Botox to treat crossed eyes and other eye-muscle disorders. They began to notice a curious side effect: Wrinkles went away.
As word spread, doctors, many in Hollywood, began injecting Botox off label.
In April 2002, the FDA approved the drug for cosmetic use.
Swift and hordes of other women became Botox believers. A 2005 study found that the typical Botox user is a working mother between 40 and 55, according to the Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation.
Most said they used Botox to look more rested and refreshed.
The same study also found 29 percent had tried a facial filler. And that's where Allergan's Pyott sees opportunity with complementary products.
In Europe, facial fillers, which plump up the skin, are more widely available. They are also three times more popular than Botox, which relaxes the muscles under the skin.
Pyott said the top filler product abroad is Inamed's Juvederm, which should have FDA approval this year.
It would compete with Restylane, a $500 treatment that adds volume to lips and fills in creases around the nose and chin.
Mariann Cordova, a 57-year-old real estate agent from Coto de Caza, likes the look of Restylane around her eyebrows. But on this afternoon last week, she wants Botox for her crow's feet.
She sets down her bottle of Perrier to apply ice to the sides of her eyes. In less than a minute, Dr. Hisham Seify injected three shots with a tiny needle.
"It just makes you feel fresher," said Cordova, who fit in the $400 treatment before flying to her native Sweden. "I have eight sisters and brothers and I want to look like the youngest."
While women are still the dominant Botox users, Pyott said more male executives are turning to the treatment for a competitive edge rather than vanity.
The 52-year-old CEO has only used Botox once.
"The good news/bad news for me is I only have one wrinkle," Pyott said.
LAP BAND AND IMPLANTS
Inamed also makes a weight-loss device billed as a less dangerous alternative to gastric bypass surgery. A band is inserted to shrink the stomach pouch. It can be adjusted and its effects can be reversed, unlike with a permanent operation.
With the growing obesity epidemic, Allergan officials expect increased sales of the Lap-Band.
But potentially most lucrative will be silicone breast implants.
More and more women choose breast augmentation, especially as reality TV shows normalize plastic surgery.
In 2004, about 264,000 American women underwent the surgery. That marked a 24 percent increase since 2000.
After leakage scares in the 1990s, silicone implants can only be used in women who have already had breast augmentation or need reconstruction. But the FDA has signaled that the last of the silicone ban will be lifted soon.
In Europe, 90 percent of women choose silicone and pay twice as much as they would for saline. Pyott compares the price difference to a BMW versus a Chevrolet.
At the Orange County Plastic Surgery office in Rancho Santa Margarita, patients pay $1,400 for saline implants and $2,800 for silicone.
Lysette Davis, 54, of Irvine, plans to replace her saline implants with firmer silicone versions next month. Her breasts feel unnaturally rippled, almost like a waterbed.
She'll go with Mentor, the rival breast implant maker to Inamed.
But her surgeon, Dr. Juris Bunkis, expects things might change with Allergan on the scene.
"It's easier for us to make one call and say, 'Can you send us 14 breast implants and 12 bottles of Botox?'"
