Physician Reminder: Importation ...( Coalition warns physicians agains...),Health

Coalition warns physicians against importation and encourages reporting of suspected illegal solicitation or use of Botox(R), Restylane(R), Radiesse(R) and others

NEW YORK, Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Offer patients imported, unbranded, non-approved or otherwise illegal cosmetic injectables and you risk criminal prosecution and the potential loss of your medical license, warns the Physicians Coalition for Injectable Safety. "As cosmetic injections continue to grow in popularity worldwide and the variety of commercially available cosmetic injectables grows, physicians are reminded by the Coalition to purchase and inject only genuinely branded, FDA approved pharmaceuticals and devices in the country of origin," says Coalition legal counsel Robert Aicher. "If a physician knowingly or naively purchases an unapproved, counterfeit or off-shore product and offers this to a patient, it is a criminal offense." In the period between 2004 and July 2008 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI) entered in 210 investigations that led to 68 arrests and 29 convictions of health care professionals who purposely injected an unapproved, cheaper substitute toxin for FDA-approved Botox(R) Cosmetic into nearly 1,000 unknowing patients. "The fake-Botox cases represent just one example of investigation and subsequent prosecution," said Mr. Aicher. "Although dermal fillers are medical devices and not drugs, they too are subject to the same regulation." Anyone who suspects the criminal act of soliciting non-approved, off-shore, counterfeit or illicit injectables in the U.S. is urged to anonymously report the suspected crime to the FDA. Information on reporting a suspected crime to the FDA can be found at http://www.fda.gov/consumer/updates/oci072307.html.

The Coalition, charged with educating consumers on safe choices in cosmetic injections an
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