The "chaos" in medical beauty: Where does Filorga's water-light needle come from?

Our reporter Chen Ting and Cao Xueping reported in Shenzhen

“If you choose to do this project, you may have acne marks, dark circles, fine lines under the eyes, uneven skin tone, etc. The problems will be improved, the pores will become finer, and the skin will look much brighter from the inside out. ”

“Can I buy it and apply it myself? ”

“ Applying it has no effect. This is not a product, it is a kind of medicine.”

Recently, when a reporter from China Business News visited a medical beauty hospital in Shenzhen, he had the above conversation with a face-to-face doctor at the hospital. .

According to the above-mentioned doctors, this "magic tool" that can solve almost all skin blemishes on the face is the Filorga Hydrating Needle.

According to the hospital's product introduction, the treatment method for the Filorga project is to use "FILORGA (Filorga) NCTF? BOOST 135HA" (hereinafter referred to as "Filorga 135HA") for injection after epidermal anesthesia. . However, reporters found from the official website of the State Drug Administration that products with the name "Filorga" are all imported cosmetics.

The reporter wrote to the hospital regarding the Filorga water-light injection project provided by the hospital to consumers, its product nature, product sources and other related issues. On March 24, the relevant person in charge of the marketing department of the hospital only told reporters that the hospital did not inject Filorga water-light injections into customers and only used smearing methods. It was not convenient to respond to other interview questions.

Check for "drugs" without approval

Recently, reporters found on an independent third-party consumer review website that the hospital has launched three products related to Filorga Hydrating Injection. Depending on the quantity and combination, the price range ranges from 1,760 to 12,680 yuan.

Among them, the retail price of a 3ml Filorga Hydrating Injection is 6,800 yuan, the group purchase price is 3,960 yuan, and the price for new customers can be as low as 1,760 yuan.

The product details page shows that the pharmaceutical brand of Filorga Hydrating Injection is "Filorga". It is applicable to the face and neck. Its ingredients are amino acids, hyaluronic acid, coenzymes, vitamins, nucleic acids, Antioxidant; indications include smoothing wrinkles, brightening skin tone, fairing, elasticity, suppleness and luster, firming and fineness, activating collagen regeneration, and repairing damaged cells.

To this end, reporters recently came to the hospital. The day of the visit was a working day, but many customers went to the hospital for treatment.

The doctor who received the reporter said that Filorga water-light injection is a very common project, which uses machine injection and epidermal circumferential injection (i.e. hand injection). “Like when you apply a mask, you apply it on the epidermis. , it cannot reach the dermis layer of your skin. But the Filorga Hydrating Needle can directly reach the dermis layer of your skin, so that your skin can be hydrated from the inside out and add nutrients to the skin. ”

When the reporter asked whether Filorga could be used by smearing it on, the above-mentioned doctor said that "application has no effect" and said that Filorga water-light injection is a "medicine".

The above-mentioned doctor said that the hospital injected "Filorga 135HA" to customers. There are also "parallel imports" of this product on the market, and the Filorga hydro-optic needles used in this hospital are "authorized" by the manufacturer and are all imported.

When talking about the issue of product authenticity, the doctor said that the hospital will confirm the "drugs" used by customers before injecting them, but the "medical waste" cannot be taken away after the injection.

Regarding the above-mentioned properties of Filorga water-light injection pointed out by the hospital, the reporter found no drugs with the name "Filorga" or "FILORGA" in the drug list on the official website of the State Food and Drug Administration. Registration or filing records.

At the same time, in the "Imported Medical Devices", the reporter only found a product called "Soft tissue implants visco-elastic gel of hyaluronic acid-with lidocaine" The registered name of the product is S.A. FILORGA MANUFACTURING, and the specification is 1.2ml/tube. This product is used for injection from the middle to deep layers of facial dermal tissue to correct moderate to severe nasolabial fold wrinkles.

In the "Imported Cosmetics" section of the cosmetics list, there are 69 records for products with the name "Filorga". Among them, the English name of "Filorga Youth Essence Enhanced" is "FILORGA PROFESSIONAL NCTF BOOST 135 HA POLYREVITALIZING SOLUTION WITH HYALURONIC ACID HIGH CONCENTRATION", and the manufacturer is LABORATOIRES FILORGA, France, in China The responsible unit for declaration is Beijing Ouhua Yihong Consulting Co., Ltd., and the approval number is "National Cosmetics Preparation No. J20166918". The approval date is July 28, 2016, and the approval period is valid for 4 years.

The above-mentioned interview doctor confirmed to reporters that the Chinese name of the product used by the hospital is "Filorga Youth Essence Enhanced".

According to the official introduction of FILLMED in 2017, "Filorga Youth Essence Enhanced" is a mesotherapy cocktail formula product that obtained the national food and drug supervision approval in July 2016. Certification from the Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), "This allows Chinese consumers to buy NCTF? BOOST 135HA Filorga Youth Essence Enhanced product imported from France in China."

It is worth noting that, The "National Cosmetics Preparation No. J20166918" approval number for "Filorga Youth Essence Enhanced" currently shows "Expired".

In this regard, the reporter wrote to the hospital to verify the nature of the Filorga water-light injection product it injected for consumers. The hospital said that the question was within the scope of the hospital's doctors, and it was unable to answer it and it was inconvenient. Contact the relevant doctor for answers, and the reason for the interview must be reported to the group headquarters first. He is not "very familiar" with the group's situation and cannot provide relevant contact information.

The chaos of water-light acupuncture

On some medical beauty apps, there are a dazzling array of products and cases about Filorga water-light acupuncture. The treatment methods are all injections, and the products used are " "Filorga 135HA" claims that "in addition to hyaluronic acid, it also contains 53 1 nutrients found in human skin" and reminds that "multiple treatments are required to achieve the desired effect."

Basis. According to the "Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Cosmetics", cosmetics refer to daily chemical industrial products that are applied to skin, hair, nails, lips and other human body surfaces by rubbing, spraying or other similar methods for the purpose of cleaning, protecting, beautifying and modifying.

In addition, the "Filorga Youth Essence Enhanced" cosmetics product technical requirements document issued by the State Food and Drug Administration shows that the usage method of this product is "use it in the morning and evening, use a cotton pad, and Apply 1 small bottle of essence to clean skin and use for 5 days, like essence or lotion, on face, neck and shoulders."

However, large chain beauty medical institutions like this hospital are also suspected of using cosmetic brand products and injecting them into consumers. The nature and source of the products are unknown.

During 2017 and 2021, the hospital committed multiple advertising violations and was fined a total of 116,000 yuan. The hospital also committed illegal acts of failing to write medical records in accordance with regulations and using personnel who were not qualified as cosmetic surgery attending physicians to independently perform cosmetic surgery projects.

In recent years, compared with medical aesthetic surgeries with higher risks and more expensive prices, light medical aesthetic services have become more and more popular among consumers, and the word "injection" has become extremely common.

However, driven by profit, the originally safer medical beauty treatment also has many traps.

According to the "2020 China Medical Beauty Industry Insights White Paper" released by iResearch, the authenticity rate of injections circulating in the medical beauty market is only 33.3, that is, 2 out of every 3 injections are parallel imports and fake. goods and other illegal injections.

Exaggerated publicity has become one of the causes of chaos in medical beauty. In fact, even the common words "water light injection" and "face slimming injection" are banned in advertising.

On August 27, 2019, the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, in conjunction with the Shanghai Health Commission and other departments, made it clear at a special training meeting on regulating medical advertising that "face slimming needles" and "water light needles" were made up Non-standard terms are regarded as illegal advertising, and it is proposed that medical beauty platforms should also fulfill their supervision and management responsibilities.

In actual consumption, the non-compliant operations of medical beauty institutions directly pose huge safety risks to consumers. In exchange for the trust given by consumers, unscrupulous merchants make illegal profits.

On November 24, 2020, the self-proclaimed "Yueyang City's largest" comprehensive beauty service institution - the brand "Yuxuan Medical Beauty Clinic" (hereinafter referred to as " Hu, the former director of "Yuxuan Medical Aesthetics", was criminally detained for allegedly practicing illegal medicine and causing disability to customers.

Previously, Ms. Zhou, the victim of the above-mentioned case, complained that when she was getting water-light injections at Yuxuan Medical Beauty, Hu Mou, the then executive director of the hospital, proposed to add some drugs to the injection drugs ( The backyard party claimed that the drug was brought privately by Hu for injection to customers) and could have the effect of removing freckles. But soon after, dense and regular red pimples appeared on Ms. Zhou’s face where the water-light injection was manually injected. In this regard, the appraisal opinion produced by the Hunan Xinwencheng Judicial Appraisal Center is: Ms. Zhou, the appraisee, "has small scars and pigmentation on her face, which constitutes a tenth-level disability."