Medical beauty injections illegally sold online, micro-plastic surgery becomes "dangerous" plastic surgery
Some fake hyaluronic acid injections are not even filled with hyaluronic acid
The death of a woman from Hangzhou due to liposuction is still being discussed online. A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily learned on July 17 that when netizens are worried about the safety of plastic surgery, some medical and aesthetic institutions claim that injection-based microplastic surgery is safer. .
Is this really the case?
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily found that adverse reactions caused by micro adjustments have also occurred from time to time, and the illegal production and sale of illegal medical beauty injections has formed a "black industry chain."
Some fake medical injections cost only a few yuan, and some fake hyaluronic acid injections are not even filled with hyaluronic acid.
reflect
The sequelae of being injected with fake injections has not been cured for ten years
On July 14, a female internet celebrity confessed that she was unable to take it off because she had used too much hyaluronic acid in the past eight years, and now she did not dare to go out.
She advised netizens not to inject hyaluronic acid blindly. “Don’t use too much hyaluronic acid. You need to be cautious about cosmetic surgery. Think twice before doing anything.” Some netizens said that fake hyaluronic acid is flooded in the market, and low-quality hyaluronic acid or inferior hyaluronic acid is flooded False hyaluronic acid can cause sequelae.
The sequelae caused by the cosmetic needle that Ms. Li injected ten years ago has not been cured yet.
At that time, the beauty salon called it hyaluronic acid for injection, but because of the pits on the face, after half a year of injection, she went to the hospital to find out that the injection was a fake injection. The main ingredient in it was not hyaluronic acid at all, but early. Ogilvy was banned.
In recent years, cases of blindness caused by injections of fake hyaluronic acid injections have also appeared from time to time.
Exploring the cause
Failure cases are mostly due to the use of inferior injections
Non-surgical micro-surgery projects and light medical beauty projects are more easily accepted by domestic consumers due to factors such as less trauma.
At the same time, because injection-type medical beauty does not work for a long time, the repurchase rate is very high, and medical beauty institutions are also happy to promote it.
However, the potential safety hazards should not be underestimated.
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily learned that an important reason for the frequent failure of micro-rectification on the Internet to make the micro-rectification "dangerous" is the use of fake and inferior injections.
In the fifth issue of the cosmetic public opinion report of the China Plastic Surgery Association in 2021, the products involved in the adverse events during the reporting period include water injection, botulinum toxin, fat filling, etc., and the above three medical aesthetics are also ranked in the top three Bit.
In its notification, 27 pieces of information related to illegal purchases of fake and parallel imports on the Internet were discovered in the current period.
Illegal product information on individual websites has appeared many times and tried to expand its illegal sales network by recruiting agents.
Find
Illegal medical beauty injection sales lurking in online communities
So where do these irregular medical beauty injections come from?
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily learned that some e-commerce and social media have become channels for the circulation of fake goods to consumers.
In order to evade the supervision of the platform, some sellers also played the "black language" of medical beauty, some typed the name of the similar product and added the word "same style", and some labelled it with packaging color + effect.
These sellers do not describe the products in the product detail page, all in order to direct customers to the online community or WeChat contact.
In fact, the so-called purchasing agents and agents of illegal medical beauty injections have been looking for customers through online communities and WeChat.
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily saw on an online community platform that various advertisements for the sale of hyaluronic acid injections can be seen everywhere.
And some micro-businesses also use the message function of Tieba to leave contact information in many posts.
In order to grab the supply of goods, some sellers also posted some so-called "bad merchants" messages to remind netizens to pay attention, and then turned around and began to promote their products.
Sale of fakes
Sellers still claim to have sufficient sources of imported goods under the epidemic
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily contacted some of these businesses as customers and found that some people are indeed engaged in the sale of medical beauty injections, and some claim to have warehouses with sufficient supplies.
When a reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily asked why there were sufficient sources of imported goods in the context of epidemic prevention and control, the other party said that it was a channel before the epidemic.
However, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily learned that most hyaluronic acid injection products have a shelf life of only two years.
When a reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily questioned its qualifications, the other party said that there is indeed no way to scan the code to verify the authenticity of imported products, but domestic products can accept scan code inspection. If you are worried about the source of the goods, you can choose domestic products.
It can also be seen from the price list that some formal medical institutions sell domestic hyaluronic acid injections whose prices should be lower than imported products. They are one of the most expensive products in their price lists, with a price of three or four. Around one hundred yuan.
The lowest price of hyaluronic acid injection from South Korea is only 80 yuan.
In fact, even if you do not consider the sale of imported parallel imports, as the micro-business claims, the domestic hyaluronic acid injections it sells can be verified by scanning the code, and its behavior has violated relevant laws and regulations.
In my country, hyaluronic acid injections for injection are managed in accordance with the third category of medical devices.
This is also the highest risk level with the most stringent management among medical devices. Not only production, but also special business licenses are required for sales. It is impossible for regular manufacturers to sell their products to unqualified distributors or individuals.
Demystify
Physiological saline, low-cost raw materials, fake medical and beauty injections are still profitable at low prices
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily learned that some consumers or unscrupulous medical and aesthetic institutions find these illegal channels to purchase medical and aesthetic injections, mainly because of their low prices.
But the bigger hidden danger is that some illegal platforms have broken away from supervision by some means, and consumers cannot know where their goods come from.
An industry insider who did not want to be named said that the biggest problem in the current medical beauty injections comes from parallel imports and fakes.
Among them, parallel imports refer to medical beauty injections that have not been approved by the country but have been sold abroad, while fake goods are products that have not been approved at home or abroad.
The source of some fakes is mainly to counterfeit products of well-known brands. They will find some small factories or even workshops to cooperate. These manufacturers do not have the qualifications to produce third-class medical devices.
The industry insider said that because of the declaration, the large formulas of hyaluronic acid injection products are public, so they can basically be found through public channels.
Hyaluronic acid is a large category of products, and the price of raw materials of different grades of hyaluronic acid differs by ten times or even hundreds of times.
The reporter of Beiqing Daily calculated according to the financial report of Aimeike, the cost of its hyaluronic acid products Hibody and Aifulai in 2019 were 25 yuan and 31 yuan for a single unit, respectively.
The production costs of formal enterprises that use medical-grade raw materials are still so, and the cost of hyaluronic acid injections produced by "Black Workshop" can only be lower.
According to industry sources, the ex-factory price of hyaluronic acid injections produced by some workshops averaged 2 to 10 yuan, and the price was increased to about 50 yuan through the first-level agency, and then 200 to 300 yuan through the second-level agency of the circle of friends. The price will rise to more than 1,000 yuan, the product is hundreds of times premium, and the profit is huge.
The Nanjing Municipal Public Security Bureau Qixia Police, who once investigated and handled counterfeit cosmetic injections worth over 10 million yuan, revealed that the raw materials used in the counterfeiting dens were freeze-dried powder with a cost of only 0.6 yuan per bottle, and the profits of criminals "far exceeded drug trafficking."
Not only that, some unscrupulous merchants do not even sell hyaluronic acid at all.
A doctor who is engaged in plastic surgery in Beijing's top three hospitals revealed to a reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily that among the patients he asked for, some of the injections used for doctors to identify were not filled with hyaluronic acid, but physiological saline.
prompt
Legal hyaluronic acid for injection must be "Mechanic"
In recent years, the police in many places have notified the investigation of major cases of fake beauty injections, the value of which is more than 10 million.
Beginning in 2017, the state has carried out special rectifications on the medical beauty market.
This year, the National Health Commission and other eight ministries and commissions once again launched a six-month special rectification of illegal medical beauty services.
According to the work plan, this special rectification includes severely cracking down on illegal medical cosmetology-related activities, strictly regulating medical cosmetology services, and severely cracking down on illegal production and sale of drugs and medical devices.
And how do you tell if the hyaluronic acid you have been injected is genuine?
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily learned that the legal hyaluronic acid used for injecting beauty must be a "machine" brand.
Hyaluronic acid injections are managed in accordance with the third category of medical devices in my country.
However, the outer packaging of medical devices sold in my country needs to have Chinese labels. If the packaging is all in English, the product may not be registered in the country and there is a risk.
The outer packaging of compliant medical device products is marked with registration number, manufacturer, production license, intended use and other information, which can be found on the official website of the State Drug Administration.
Text/Reporter Zhang Xin Co-ordinated/Yu Meiying