Buying Your New Face

On a steamy July morning in New York City last summer, Allergan, maker of Botox, unveiled the latest weapon in its aesthetic arsenal, Juvéderm. The new wrinkle filler--made from hyaluronic acid, a naturally occurring sugar in the skin that helps it hold moisture--had just got the green light from the FDA for distribution in the U.S. Champagne corks popped and a curtain parted to reveal a glamorous and wrinkle-free blond, seen minutes before on a video with a face full of creases and frowns. "This is the new generation of dermal fillers," gushed Caroline Van Hove, director of communications for Allergan. "Juvéderm is going to rock the market."

Allergan, a specialty pharmaceutical outfit with sales of $2.9 billion, will put the same marketing muscle behind Juvéderm that made Botox a household name. There are some potential wrinkles in that plan, though. Botox, a facial-muscle relaxant that was used by some 3.5 million people last year, had the market to itself; Juvéderm has a competitor before it's even out of the box: Restylane, the current best-selling hyaluronic-acid filler, made by Medicis, a $344 million dermatological company based in Scottsdale, Ariz. And Medicis' Perlane, a more robust version of Restylane, is expected to get the FDA's thumbs-up any day now. Down the road, there's a possibly even bigger blow, Reloxin, a Botox-like alternative.

Also in Medicis' corner: plans for a Medicis-sponsored reality-TV show, The Hottest Mom in America. "It's like two 900-lb. gorillas that once each had a monopoly, slugging it out for each other's market share," says Dr. Kenneth Beer, a cosmetic dermatologist in Palm Beach, Fla., who runs a summer boot camp in Colorado that trains physicians on the latest aesthetic techniques. "It's an interesting time in the beauty business."

Make no mistake about it, a war on wrinkles is under way. And Medicis and Allergan aren't the only ones battling for the $14 billion Americans will spend this year to rejuvenate their aging faces. The overall aesthetics market, including laser devices and breast implants, is only going to keep growing, at a 25% annual clip, according to Allergan's calculations. Says Allergan chairman and CEO David Pyott: "Everyone is trying to work out how to play in the game." And he's right. Dermatologists, cosmetics giants, pharmaceutical companies, medical-device makers and spas are all trying to get rich selling youth to the nation's aging baby boomers, a group that's nearly 80 million strong and getting more wrinkled by the day, bless their narcissistic little hearts.

What's different about this phase of the wrinkle war is that many of the techniques available today actually work, if only temporarily, and they don't involve a scalpel. As long as you're willing to pay thousands of dollars for a menu of cosmetic, nonsurgical treatments, you can reasonably expect to retrieve, for a few months at least, a semblance of your youthful appearance.