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N E W S A N D A N A LY S I S

INDUSTRY NEWS aestheticmed.co.uk

NEWS IN BRIEF Consumer health and beauty
shopping behaviour affected by
ABBVIE COMPLETES
ALLERGAN ACQUISITION pandemic
AbbVie, a research-based global
biopharmaceutical company, has According to new research, consumers are now more interested in factors such
completed its acquisition of Allergan as brand loyalty and family recommendations when purchasing products during
following receipt of regulatory the pandemic, while pricing has become less of a concern.
approval from all government Data by The Skin Health Alliance discovered subtle shifts in consumer
authorities required by the transaction behaviour when it came to their health and beauty needs during coronavirus
agreement and approval by the Irish lockdown in April 2020. For example, brand loyalty experienced the greatest
High Court. “The new AbbVie will change at an increase of 12% compared to figures from 2019, while positive
be a well-diversified leader in many reviews from family and friends also mattered to consumers more – rising from
important therapeutic categories... and 37% in 2019 to 44% in 2020.
our financial strength will allow us to
continue to invest in innovative science Meanwhile, even though price remained the top factor, its influence dropped
and continue to serve unmet medical by 2% in April 2020 to 88% (it was 90% in 2019), the data found. Other factors
needs of patients that rely upon us,” such as environmental friendliness and celebrity endorsement experienced
commented Richard Gonzalez, AbbVie slight reductions too, while the impact of allergies and the media’s influence
chairman and chief executive. were shown to remain the same.
Hand cleanliness has also become a hot topic for 2020, with “more people
GC AESTHETICS seeking out products they believe work, in turn making them feel more secure,
INTRODUCES COMFORT PLUS safer,” said Skin Health Alliance spokesman James Stalley. “The narrative
WARRANTY around hand cleanliness has become one of scientific fact rather than a
Silicone implant producer GC marketing or media driven message.”
Aesthetics has announced a new
lifetime warranty for its patients and
practitioners, offering free, automatic
and retrospective cover for treatment
of late seroma (swelling which can
occur after breast implant surgery)
for products implanted since 1 January
2009. The new GCA Comfort Plus
warranty also offers free implant
replacements in the event of a rupture
or capsular contracture, which was also
offered on the previous warranty.
SURGERY VISUALISATION
THEATRE TECHNOLOGY
DEVELOPED
Ocutrx Vision Technologies has
announced plans to launch new
technology that provides modern
options for surgery visualisation
and removes “pain” for surgeons to
improve surgeries, named the Ocutrx UK has Europe’s highest number
OR-Bot Surgery Visualisation Theatre. of med-tech start-ups working on
The new ORLenz augmented-reality
surgery headset features a surgery covid-19 projects
view with augmented virtual patient
and operating tool information. The 11 of the 34 on-going covid-19 projects identified by an Oxford University data
OR-Bot’s Lenticular Autostereoscopic visualisation spin-out are based in the UK.
8K 3D “glasses-free” monitor allows Zegami’s research looked at med-tech start-ups in Europe and identified on-
others to view surgery in the room.
going projects in 15 countries including Switzerland, Portugal, Poland, Iceland,
Estonia and Ukraine. After the UK, Switzerland came out as home to the second-
RESTYLANE UK LAUNCHES
SOCIAL MEDIA highest number of projects, with four.
Galderma dermal filler and skin booster Zegami is itself working on a project that uses x-rays of lungs infected
brand Restylane has started posting with covid-19 to build a robust machine learning model to assist healthcare
content on its social media channels, @ professionals in identifying the virus.
restylaneuk. The purpose of the page Roger Noble, chief executive and founder of Zegami, said: “It is very encouraging
is to provide clinics with content for to see such a positive and proactive response from Europe’s start-up med-tech
them to share and include in their social sector in the fight against covid-19. Many, like us, are also providing their services
media calendars and campaigns, with for free.
an overall goal of educating patients on “There is little doubt that the industry has a huge role to play in defeating this
dermal fillers. disease.”

10 Aesthetic Medicine • June 2020