Safety fears put women off non-surgical fillers, says Radiesse

San Mateo: Questions over safety of aesthetic facial fillers stop many women from undertaking this form of beauty treatment, according to a new survey from US company Radiesse.

In a recent “Face of Beauty” survey, it estimates that over 22 million women aged 35 and older who have not used a cosmetic filler would be more likely to use an injectable filler for facial wrinkles if it were proven safe, more affordable, longer-lasting and stimulated the body’s growth of collagen — the key attributes of next- generation Radiesse(1).

These findings are based on a Harris Interactive® poll of 807 women undertaken late last year and conducted on behalf of BioForm Medical, Inc., the makers of Radiesse(2).

Radiesse is the first cosmetic filler with advanced calcium-based microsphere technology that has a proven one year benefit and safety profile on par with collagen. It was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the correction of moderate to severe facial wrinkles and folds. Because of its unique calcium-based micropsheres, physicians report that longer-lasting, voluminous Radiesse is the better patient value because patients need fewer treatments per year with about half as much product per treatment compared to rival treatments.

Further, the ability of next- generation Radiesse to stimulate collagen and produce results that last about a year or more with utmost safety is setting a new standard for wrinkle correction and restoring the fullness and contours of a youthful, healthy appearance.

The survey also found that the average woman looks at her face in the mirror almost five times a day, or about once every three waking hours. This fact is bolstered by more than 45 million U.S. women (60%) who responded that they were more likely to worry about their face looking old and wrinkled than their body showing the signs of aging.

When asked who men would rather kiss, 60% of women think men would find a beautiful face more “kissable” than a beautiful body.

Survey results also indicated that women between the ages of 35 and 44 are more likely to feel less confident when they notice facial wrinkles (34%) compared to their older counterparts (17% of those aged 45 to 54; and 22% of those aged 55 and older).

“This finding is hardly a surprise,” said Susan H. Weinkle, M.D., a leading cosmetic dermatologist in Bradenton, Florida, and guest speaker at a kick-off luncheon in New York City where the “Face of Beauty” survey results were released. “We are seeing a real shift in women’s attitudes from 10 years ago.

Today’s woman is looking for the next generation, cost-effective solution to help fight the visible signs of aging. She is not content to wait for the appearance of tell-tale folds and wrinkles before investigating cosmetic fillers like Radiesse,” she added. “Women today know what they want and are going for it at an increasingly younger age.”

The Radiesse “Face of Beauty” survey was conducted to determine the practices, attitudes, and aspirations of women aged 35 and over with regard to the use of injectable wrinkle fillers including Radiesse.

About Radiesse

Radiesse is a longer-lasting injectable dermal filler used in many cosmetic, reconstructive and therapeutic applications to augment soft tissue, such as facial wrinkles, folds and contours. Composed of calcium hydroxylapatite (CaHA) microspheres suspended in an aqueous gel, FDA-approved Radiesse both fills and stimulates the body to produce new collagen for immediate results that last about one year or more. As such, next generation Radiesse is setting a new standard for the correction of nasolabial folds. Manufactured and distributed by BioForm Medical, Inc., Radiesse has been proven safe and effective in hundreds of thousands of procedures worldwide. For more information about Radiesse, please visit < ahref="http://www.radiesse.com">www.radiesse.com

About BioForm Medical, Inc.

BioForm Medical, Inc. is a privately-held medical aesthetics company headquartered in San Mateo, California. BioForm is dedicated to bringing doctors and their patients safe and effective products for use in the dermatology, ENT, and plastic surgery markets. BioForm’s products include Radiesse®, the first one-year filler for use in facial aesthetics and vocal fold insufficiency; Cutanix® for facial redness associated with conditions such as rosacea; a new surgical adhesive product for plastic surgery applications being developed in a partnership with CryoLife, Inc.; and Coaptite® for treating female stress urinary incontinence (“SUI”) which is marketed through a partnership with Boston Scientific Corporation. For more information about BioForm, please visit www.bioformmedical.com

(1) The results to individual survey questions were reported as percentages of the total number of survey respondents. The percentages have been converted to actual numbers based on data from the 2000 U.S. Census, which reported 75.5 million women ages 35 and older residing in the United States.

(2) This survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of BioForm Medical, Inc. between November 27 and November 29, 2006 among 807 U.S. adult women 35 years of age or older and between December 15 and December 19, 2006 among 809 U.S. adult women 35 years of age or older. Figures for region, age within gender, education, household income and race/ethnicity were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

With a pure probability sample of 807 or 809 one could say with a ninety- five percent probability that the overall results would have a sampling error of +/- 6 percentage points. Sampling error for sub-samples may be higher and may vary. However that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.