Tuesday 5 April 2011

Botulinum Toxin Type A: Botox has a long shelf life

2011
Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, April 2: In a boon to people who want to look young, a city researcher has found that Botulinum Toxin Type A, popularly known as  Botox, can be stored after unsealing for as long as six weeks.
Untill now a Botox vial is discarded within four hours of its opening. Believing that it has a low shelf life, doctors discard the vial after treating a patient, though it has medicine enough for four people. This in other words means, a patient undergoing Botox treatment spends three times more on the medicine.
Animal studies by senior plastic surgeon Dr Debraj Shome have shown that Botox is not a fragile molecule and its shelf life can be increased to as long as six weeks, provided it is kept in a refrigerator. Since the
opened vial can be used for three more sittings, the cost of treatment comes down drastically, enabling more people to go in for Botox injections.
"Botox is one of the fastest emerging solutions for people who want to look young and clear wrinkles on their faces. When injected under the skin, Botox relaxes the muscle tissues below the skin and this effect
reduces wrinkles and lines of ageing. Thanks to its high cost, it is still out of reach for many middle income groups," he said, adding that studies on animals have shown that the shelf life of Botox can be prolonged.
Dr Shome, who heads the Institute of Aesthetics Surgery at Apollo Hospitals here, said in centres where clinicians use only low doses of Botox, the vial, once opened is discarded if they do not get other patients within four hours. Botox is a an expensive drug and the cost of this wasted solution is passed on to the patient.
As many as 64 white Swiss Webster mice, aged between two and four weeks, were selected for the study. The rats were divided into eight groups. The reconstituted Botox was securely placed in a battery operated mechanised contraption. The contraption with the vial was placed in the refrigerator. The vial was inverted and straightened 30 times a minute continuously by the apparatus.
One group of eight mice were each injected with 1 unit of the agitated Botox on days 1, 3, 5, 7, 14 and 21, 28 and 42, to evaluate its efficacy. The results showed that the effect of Botox can be maintained even up
to six weeks, provided it was refrigerated.
"Botox therapy is set to become much cheaper as physicians can now use a single vial in multiple patients and therefore, pass on the benefits of the cost-saving to the consumers. I expect
Botox prices to become at
least 30 per cent cheaper," Dr Shome said.

2 comments:

Cosmetic said...

Thanks for sharing nice information.
Kansas city botox

Anonymous said...

The Timeline is mainly what was once referred to as
the Wall. It exhibits the Conversations, Likes, and Shares of others, however it is all related
to the Web page or Profile that has control over that specific
Timeline. marketing niche market, https://wiki.waratah.spcc.nsw.edu.au/groups/Year9maths/wiki/b48f9/utilizing_fb_for_business.html,

Mother's Care

Mother's Care
Minnu The Cat & Her Kittens Brownie, Goldie & Blackie

Someone with Nature

Someone with Nature
Syed Akbar in an island in river Godavari with Papikonda hills in the background

Recognition by World Vegetable Centre

Recognition by World Vegetable Centre

Under the shade of Baobab tree

Under the shade of Baobab tree
At Agha Khan Akademi in Kenya

Gateway to the Southern Hemisphere

Gateway to the Southern Hemisphere

Convention on Biodiversity

Convention on Biodiversity
Syed Akbar at the 11th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity