Counterfeit Injectables: How Do You Know What Is Being Injected?

When choosing an aesthetic clinic, patients are often told to “do their research”. Check the practitioner’s qualifications and experience. Look at their results. Ask questions. Make sure you feel comfortable before going ahead.

All of that is important. But patient safety should not rest entirely on the patient making the right choice.

Clinics have responsibilities too.

That includes knowing exactly what they are purchasing, where it has come from and whether the supplier they are buying from is reputable and authorised to distribute the product. Choosing a product simply because it is available at a lower price is not good enough when that product is going to be injected into a patient.

This is where product provenance becomes important.

In aesthetic medicine, it is not enough for a box, syringe or label to look convincing. Clinics need to know that the products they inject are genuine, have been obtained through appropriate supply channels and can be traced back through the supply chain if there is ever a problem.

And as the medical aesthetics industry grows, the importance of this only increases. In the UK alone, an estimated 900,000 botulinum toxin injections are carried out each year, while industry data has recorded a 100% year-on-year increase in dermal filler procedures. With injectable treatments being performed on this scale, counterfeit and unverified products are not simply an industry issue; they are a growing patient-safety concern.

Why are people talking about counterfeit injectables?

As the medical aesthetics industry has grown, so too have concerns around counterfeit injectable products and products whose origin or authenticity cannot be reliably verified.

The problem is that a patient sitting in a treatment chair has very little way of knowing where the product in front of them actually came from.

There are also two separate issues that are sometimes confused.

A counterfeit product is not the genuine product it claims to be. It may imitate the branding or packaging of an established injectable, but there can be no assurance about its contents, how it was manufactured or its safety.

A parallel import, however, may be a genuine product originally intended for another market. That does not make the product counterfeit. Parallel imports can enter the UK legally through regulated routes, subject to the appropriate licensing requirements.

That distinction matters.

A genuine box doesn’t necessarily tell you the whole story

This is where product provenance becomes more complicated than simply asking whether the packaging “looks real”.

We were recently made aware of a UK clinic that received stock originally intended for an African market.

That does not mean the product itself was counterfeit, but it does raise an important question: how did a product intended for one market end up being supplied in another? Being able to account for that journey through the supply chain is an important part of establishing product provenance.

This is one example involving one product, but the wider issue of product provenance is not specific to any one brand or manufacturer. It is a consideration across the injectable aesthetics industry.

Injectable products need to be transported and stored under appropriate conditions. Clinics also need accurate batch information and a clear supply chain so that a product can be traced if a safety issue or adverse reaction occurs.

For us, therefore, it is not enough simply to know that a product is genuine. We also need to know that it has reached the clinic through an appropriate, traceable supply chain and that its provenance can be verified.

Why does the supply chain matter if something goes wrong?

Most injectable aesthetic treatments are performed without complication, but no injectable procedure is entirely risk-free.

If a patient experiences an unexpected reaction, the practitioner needs to know exactly what was injected, its batch number and where it was obtained.

That traceability matters. It allows the clinic to investigate whether an issue could be linked to a particular product or batch, establish whether others could potentially be affected and, where necessary, report the issue and seek support from the supplier or manufacturer.

When products are purchased through recognised supply channels, there is an established chain through which those checks can be made. If a product has been obtained from an unknown or unverified source, establishing its history may be much more difficult.

There may also be implications for a practitioner’s insurance if products are used that fall outside the requirements of their policy or have not been sourced appropriately. The exact position will depend on the individual policy, but it is another reason why responsible clinics take procurement and traceability seriously.

Why very cheap injectable treatments should make you ask questions

Price alone cannot tell you whether an injectable product is genuine.

There are perfectly legitimate reasons why clinics charge different prices, including location, practitioner experience, overheads and promotional activity.

But there is a point at which unusually low prices should prompt questions.

Genuine injectable products have a cost. So do appropriate clinical premises, insurance, practitioner training, consultation time, aftercare and the ability to manage complications safely.

When we see injectable treatments advertised at exceptionally low prices, including through mass-discount and voucher platforms, the question should not simply be:

“Why is this so cheap?”

It should also be:

“What exactly am I being injected with, who is injecting it and where did the product come from?”

A low price does not prove that a product is counterfeit. But when a treatment is being offered substantially below the typical market price, patients are entitled to ask questions and understand what they are paying for.

How IBSA is taking steps to strengthen product security

Against this wider industry backdrop, manufacturers also have an important role to play in helping practitioners and patients verify the products they use.

IBSA, the manufacturer of Profhilo®, has introduced an additional security feature to its UK and Ireland packaging: a hologram designed to make genuine Profhilo® products easier to identify and counterfeit packaging more difficult to reproduce.

It provides an additional visual check for clinics and patients and is a welcome step towards making product authenticity easier to verify.

The hologram is not intended to replace responsible sourcing or product traceability. Rather, it adds another layer of reassurance alongside purchasing through appropriate supply channels, checking batch information and maintaining clear records of where products have come from.

No single security feature can address the wider issue of counterfeit injectables on its own. But measures that make products easier to authenticate and more difficult to imitate are an important part of protecting both practitioners and patients.

For us, the principle remains the same: know what you are buying, know where it has come from and make sure it can be traced.

What we do at Dr Preema London Clinic

At Dr Preema London Clinic, we take product sourcing seriously because it forms part of patient safety.

We purchase injectable products through established suppliers and take steps to verify that the pharmacies and suppliers we use are authorised to supply the products we purchase from them.

We maintain records of the products and batches used in clinic so that there is traceability should it ever be required.

For our patients, that means the responsibility for checking where a product came from does not begin when they sit in the treatment chair. It begins with the decisions we make when purchasing products for the clinic.

What can patients ask before an injectable treatment?

You do not need to become an expert in pharmaceutical packaging before having an aesthetic treatment.

But it is entirely reasonable to ask:

• What product are you using?
• Who manufactures it?
• Where do you source it from?
• Can the product and its batch be traced?
• What happens if I experience a complication?
• Who can I contact after my treatment?

A reputable practitioner should be comfortable answering these questions clearly and openly.

The bigger picture: trust should extend beyond the practitioner

When we talk about safe aesthetic treatment, much of the conversation understandably focuses on practitioner qualifications and experience.

Those things are enormously important.

But safety also extends to what happens behind the scenes: where products are purchased, how they are stored, whether batches are recorded and whether the clinic has appropriate systems in place if something goes wrong.

Patients should not have to inspect every box or research every batch number themselves. They should be able to choose a clinic knowing that this work has already been done for them.

At Dr Preema London Clinic, product provenance is part of that responsibility.

Because when something is being injected into your face or body, knowing who is treating you matters.

Knowing what they are treating you with matters too.

References

1. UK Parliament, Women and Equalities Committee. The regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures. Includes evidence on the scale and growth of injectable aesthetic procedures in the UK.
Read the UK Parliament report

Written by the Team at Dr Preema London Clinic

Medically Reviewed by Dr Preema Vig, Medical Director at Dr Preema London Clinc