Botox injection for cometic use Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Botox injection for cometic use - Essay Example Botulinum toxin,popularly known by its trade name Botox, is a protein and neurotoxin developed by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum.Botox is used for several medical as well as cosmetic procedures. Today, Botox injection that consists of a small dose of botulinum toxin is used for a variety of cosmetic applications. Botox injection is widely used to paralyze facial muscles for the purpose of preventing the development of wrinkles According to a report published by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Botox based cosmetic operation was most common in the US with 4.6 million procedures as of 2007 (Botox, n. d.). Although side effects of the Botox injection’s many cosmetic applications are still debated, the use of Botox injection for cosmetic purposes has been increasing steadily. This paper will explore the potentiality of the Botox injection in cosmetic applications using the Porter’s Five Forces Model concept. Five forces Forces driving service area competition Conclusion Intensity of rivalry Allergan Inc and Medicis are the two main companies involved in the distribution of Botox in the US. Botox injections are sold across the world despite geographic differences or medical culture. Data indicate that Botox injection was used in nearly 4.6 cosmetic operation procedures in the US as of 2007. The same trend can be seen through the global nations, particularly developed nations. Over the last few years, a growing beauty conscious culture in the Europe assisted the Botox market to achieve tremendous growth rate despite the worse effects of the sovereign debt crisis. It is interesting to note that the Botox achieved a fabulous growth rate when many other leading drugs and pharmaceutical products failed to even maintain their growth levels. Market experts anticipate that Botox sales would continue to grow because of the product’s rapid effects and growing concerns over appearance. Online market for Botox has also been performing well ove r the last few years. Since it is very easy to purchase Botox products from any parts of the globe using internet, today Botox manufactures focus more on the online sector. In the United Kingdom (as cited in Qureshi, 2009), Botox clinics generally charge from ?110 to ?400 an injection. For beauty conscious Europeans, it is not a huge price. Hence, the sales (both physical and online) of Botox injections are likely to grow over the coming years unless there is no effective alternative developed. High While analyzing the Botox market worldwide, it is obvious that competition in the Botox market continues to grow despite the recent global economic slowdown. Rivalry is likely to remain intense in the Botox market as there is no effective alternative to Botox injection yet. Threat of new entrants Although Botox injections are very well known for their cosmetic uses, only a few of the cosmetic applications of the Botox have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The FDA is still researching short term as well as long term side effects of Botox injection’s cosmetic use. The two major Botox distributors in US, Allergan Inc. and Medicis have been constantly in the new as a result of their involvement with Botox products. In 2008, Botox users filed a lawsuit against the Allergan Inc. arguing that the organization had not properly communicated the dangers of Botox injections to users. The lawsuit mainly resulted from a woman’s death as a result of use of Botox for cosmetic reasons. Subsequently, public interest group including Public Citizen complained against the Botox products for their life threatening complications. As a result, FDA required the Botox distributors to issue black box warning (it is the strongest safety measure taken by the FDA) for all Botox products. Hence, these legal complexities associated with Botox injection distribution would persuade new marketers not to enter this business field. Similarly,