Replies to post #76224 on Biotech Values

[Biowatch]

Unemployed? Get a Face Lift!

By Robert Roy Britt, Editorial Director
posted: 09 April 2009 09:09 am ET

The recession has caused plastic surgery sales to sag, but one sector has been at least partly buoyed by the bad times.

"I'm 56 and I've been in the music business for 35 years. We're not having a good year and I know I'll soon have to interview," said Jeff Grabow, a music marketing executive in Los Angeles, who recently spent $17,000 on a facelift, according to Reuters this week.

However, the number of surgical procedures dropped 9 percent in 2008, according to numbers released last month by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, though minimally-invasive procedures rose 5 percent (wrinkle-blasting laser treatments are up 456 percent among men over the past three years).

The industry is trying to put a good face on the data:

"Like most sectors, plastic surgery is feeling the effects of the economic downturn," said John Canady, the society's president. "However, repeat patients and those putting off surgery, likely sustained demand for some minimally-invasive procedures. Growth in demand will likely return as the recession eases and baby boomer's offspring begin to explore surgical options."

White people are cutting back, but others ethnic groups may ultimately lift the industry.

What the society calls "ethnic cosmetic procedures" increased 11 percent in 2008, while procedures among Caucasians dropped 2 percent. Hispanics led the way with an 18 percent increase.

"We're seeing a rise in Hispanics opting for cosmetic procedures that coincides with the growth we're seeing in the nation's population," Canady said. "Less social stigma, as well as advances in procedures allow patients to maintain their ethnic look. While the majority of patients continue to be Caucasian, the profile of the typical patient is changing."

http://www.livescience.com/culture/090409-face-lifts.html

Women's top-five cosmetic surgical procedures for 2007:

* Breast augmentation: 399,440 procedures
* Liposuction: 398,848
* Eyelid surgery: 208,199
* Tummy tuck: 180,457
* Breast reduction: 153,087

Men's top-five cosmetic surgical procedures for 2007:

* Liposuction: 57,980 procedures
* Eyelid surgery: 32,564
* Nose reshaping: 31,713
* Breast reduction: 20,280
* Hair transplantation: 16,491

The No. 1 non-surgical cosmetic procedure for U.S. men and women last year was Botox injection, with more than nearly 3 million procedures overall.

http://www.livescience.com/health/080415-crimes-against-nature.html

[woofer]

Holy Cow! I have to beat genisi........

Face lifts and injectible fillers. oops, I just found rhinoplasty and eyelift surgery too. There seems to be disagreement among various websites.

I'll go with this one....
http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=090707_plastic_surgery_los_angeles.htm

Of that total, breast augmentation dropped 12% to 307,000 procedures, and liposuction fell 19%. Tummy tucks tumbled 18% to 122,000. [Quiz: The three procedure types just mentioned are in the top-5 ranking of invasive cosmetic procedures; what are the other two?].

[DewDiligence]

BFRM was a pump-and-dump play: +42% at the open and +3% at the close!
The trigger was FDA approval of a tweaked version of Radiesse, the company’s
cosmetic dermal filler. The approval is for Radiesse syringes that come premixed
with lidocaine to make the injection less painful. From a business standpoint,
the enhanced Radiesse formulation is of minor consequence, IMO, because pain
thresholds vary greatly from patient to patient. Patients with a high tolerance for
pain were OK with the old formulation and probably won’t even notice the change,
while patients with a low tolerance for pain may find that the new formulation
is still painful and need to be pretreated with an injection of standalone lidocaine
to make the Radiesse injection bearable. Thus, the only patients likely to benefit
from the new formulation are those with a medium tolerance for pain who needed
lidocaine pretreatment with the old formulation and don’t with the new one.

Radiesse is a fine product, IMO, and BFRM has a good chance to become profitable
in the next couple of years if the economy improves materially, giving consumers
more disposable income and more impetus to pay for a cosmetic procedure.
Radiesse’s US market share is ~14% by procedure volume and ~11% by
dollar sales, which leaves a lot of upside (#msg-34685466).

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/BioForm-Medical-Receives-FDA-pz-3992237932.html?x=0&.v=1

›BioForm Medical Receives FDA Approval for Mixing Lidocaine With RADIESSE Dermal Filler

Thursday July 16, 2009, 8:00 am EDT

SAN MATEO, Calif., July 16, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BioForm Medical, Inc. (Nasdaq: BFRM ) today announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for a method of mixing RADIESSE dermal filler with lidocaine, which, in clinical trials, has demonstrated an improvement in patient comfort and an increase in patient satisfaction with RADIESSE dermal filler procedures. BioForm Medical will immediately begin commercial efforts to educate physicians to use this method of mixing RADIESSE dermal filler with lidocaine.

"Dermal filler procedures can create some level of patient discomfort due to injection pain. Being able to mix RADIESSE dermal filler with lidocaine has been proven to provide a significant advantage in improving patient comfort," stated Rhoda S. Narins, M.D., former President of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS) and a Clinical Professor of Dermatology at NYU Medical Center. "I have found in my practice that mixing with lidocaine makes RADIESSE dermal filler easier to use in many treatment areas."

This technique for mixing RADIESSE with lidocaine was developed by Mariano Busso, M.D. and the methodology was first published in the Journal of Dermatologic Surgery in June 2008. BioForm Medical conducted a 50-patient controlled clinical trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of mixing RADIESSE dermal filler with lidocaine. Patients in the split-face trial at two clinical sites reported that RADIESSE dermal filler mixed with 2% lidocaine was less painful than RADIESSE dermal filler not mixed with lidocaine, while providing comparable aesthetic correction. The results from the clinical trial demonstrated:

* Approximately 60% reduction in scores immediately following
treatment, measured on a Visual Analog Scale for Pain (VAS)
(p<0.0001).

* 100% of patients found RADIESSE dermal filler mixed with lidocaine
to be less painful than non-mixed RADIESSE dermal filler.

* 96% of patients found that the difference was significant enough
to affect their preference for one treatment over the other.

* Both RADIESSE dermal filler mixed with lidocaine and non-mixed
RADIESSE dermal filler were safe, with comparable local adverse
events, typical of dermal fillers. There were no serious adverse
events in the clinical trial.

* RADIESSE dermal filler mixed with lidocaine produced a comparable
aesthetic improvement as compared with treatment with RADIESSE
dermal filler without premixing.

The clinical study which supported this approval by FDA was conducted by Ellen S. Marmur, M.D., Chief of Dermatologic and Cosmetic Surgery, Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, N.Y., and Lawrence J. Green, M.D., Assistant Clinical Professor of Dermatology, George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C.

The method approved by FDA is based on using a mixing syringe and the female-to-female luer lock connector to mix RADIESSE dermal filler and lidocaine. Components for this mixing technique are commercially available through various sources, however, in the near future, BioForm Medical will be providing them in an separate Accessory Kit as a further convenience to its customers.

About BioForm Medical, Inc.:

BioForm Medical, Inc. is a medical aesthetics company headquartered in San Mateo, California, developing products that enhance aesthetic procedures performed in dermatology and plastic surgery practices. BioForm Medical's lead product is RADIESSE dermal filler, a long-lasting filler for use in facial aesthetics. BioForm Medical is developing several future aesthetics products, including a radiofrequency treatment to reduce nerve function in the forehead, a sclerotherapy treatment for spider veins, and a surgical adhesive for brow lifts. For more information about BioForm Medical, please visit www.bioform.com.‹