Americans Are Holding Off On Botox, Dermal Fillers With Inflation Soaring
Botox will have to wait.
(Bloomberg) -- Botox will have to wait.
People are holding off on Botox and other pricey aesthetic treatments such as dermal fillers and body contouring amid rampant inflation and concerns about the state of the economy, AbbVie Inc. Chief Executive Officer Rick Gonzalez said Friday. The slowdown is primarily in the US, where it correlates with economic factors like consumer confidence -- which fell to a three-month low in October -- and personal consumption spending, Gonzalez said.
AbbVie cut its forecast for aesthetics sales, expecting the biggest declines in Juvederm dermal fillers and body contouring products, such as CoolSculpting. Patients generally pay cash rather than with insurance for procedures that can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, making them more sensitive to economic conditions than treatments for life-threatening disease.
Third-quarter sales of aesthetic products were $1.3 billion, missing the $1.38 billion Wall Street analysts foresaw. It’s a shift from recent quarters when pent-up demand for aesthetics following pandemic lockdowns helped drive AbbVie’s overall sales growth. The company obtained the products through its 2020 acquisition of Allergan.
“While it’s difficult to predict the duration of these economic dynamics, we expect these conditions to persist into 2023,” Gonzalez said on a conference call with analysts to review third-quarter earnings.
Once the situation improves, AbbVie expects to see a “rapid and sustained recovery” like the one that followed the 2008 recession.
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