Thread by @thetimes

🔎 Undercover Times reporters have found beauticians offering to inject young women with “black market” Botox, putting them at risk of being disfigured for life

thetimes.co.uk/article/black-…

Reporters confirmed that at least three practitioners advertising facial injections on social media sites were using cheap versions of Botox that are not licensed in the UK.

Key findings 👇

At one beauty clinic in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, a man who represented himself as a doctor but is not registered with the General Medical Council tried to convince a female reporter to have 25 injections of an unlicensed product in her face

Campaigners warned they were receiving increasing reports of disfigurements such as permanent facial scarring and large sores caused by injections with unlicensed versions of Botox, often carried out in people’s homes and at beauty salons

Elizabeth, who is in her 50s, visited a beautician for anti-wrinkle injections after hearing about her from a “friend of a friend”

🗣️“The lumps on my forehead were hard, they burst and it was like black stuff coming out of them”

Licensed brands of botulinum toxin, of which the best known is Botox, are prescription-only drugs.

To administer injections, beauticians have to be trained and legally their clients must first have them prescribed by a registered prescriber

During an appointment with two undercover reporters, Vilnis Karklins, who said he was a doctor trained in Latvia, tried to convince them both that they should have multiple injections of Botulax, a version of Botox not licensed in the UK

He asked them to cross off the name of a licensed product on a consent form and write down “Botulax” instead, saying: “It’s just form, it doesn’t matter. It’s just a brand different”

Samantha Bennett, an aesthetic practitioner from Manchester, suggested a female reporter should have 11 injections in her face. She offered treatments with Innotox and ReNTox, which are both not licensed for cosmetic use in Britain. She said “nothing can go wrong with Botox”

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has begun an investigation into the findings

A spokeswoman said: “If a medicine is not authorised, there is no guarantee that it meets quality, safety and effectiveness standards required in the UK. This can endanger the health and welfare of people who take them”

Karklins did not respond to requests for comment. Bennett said she was not aware the products she used were not licensed.

There is no suggestion these practitioners botched treatments

✍️ Read the full story by @char_wace and @pmorganbentley

📹 Watch the undercover video

thetimes.co.uk/article/black-…

🔎 Inside the Investigation: ‘If you know where you need to put it, nothing goes wrong’

thetimes.co.uk/article/botox-…

"Unlicensed filler products are a danger to public health" | 🗞 The Times view

thetimes.co.uk/article/the-ti…

📹 Watch: The rise of ‘black market’ Botox