The coming of the new year has spelled more than merely a pounding headache. A research study published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology on new year’s day 2012 has showed clearly that Botox in the guise of a cream is effective in blurring expression lines. Will this foretell the end of unpleasant Botox injections at your local doc?
As the common saying goes, you need to suffer in order to be beautiful. Whether we are talking about extreme diets, vigorous facials, or of course getting regular botox injections, the proverb seems to be truer than ever. The idea of Botox in the shape of a cream or gel has been a dream for most who fear getting the injections. Unsurprisingly whoever develops a Botox cream will be in the line for a Nobel Prize!
Revance, a privately held pharmaceutical research center, is planning to “change the way that drugs are delivered.” The firm has developed a special technology known as TransMTS which helps drugs to pass through the dermis in their active version and target specific depths. Revance has smartly decided to enter the cosmeceutical market place by working on a Botox that can be delivered through the dermis and do away with the necessity for painful jabs. The promising novel substance, designated RT001, is a Botox gel.
The most recent research was built to evaluate whether the botox gel works and if there are side-effects to the drug. Ninety subjects took part in the study, who were split up into 2 equal groups. One group got the genuine botox gel and the placebo group got a gel without any active compound. The experiment was a “randomized, double-blind” study, implying that both the medical practitioners delivering the gel and evaluating the volunteers as well as the test subjects themselves didn’t know if they were receiving the “genuine” substance or the placebo. To participate, the volunteers had to have either moderate or severe wrinkles at the sides of the eyes.
The results were quite impressive. At a month after treatment, 44% of the volunteers receiving the genuine gel had “significant improvement” in their crow’s feet wrinkles. In order to be considered significant, the wrinkles had to improve from moderate or serious to fine or very fine. Overall 90% of patients showed some improvement. On the other hand, the placebo group showed no improvement at all. Significantly, there were no serious side effects as a consequence of the treatment.
While the results were inspiring, you will not find the botox gel at your local dispensary for the next few years. The study was a phase II study, designed to evaluate whether the treatment is effective and if there are any side-effects. The subsequent stage will be to conduct much larger phase III studies, which will look to compare the efficacy of the botox gel to existing treatments. Only after the completion of all these studies will RT001 be accepted for FDA approval.