Latisse FDA-approved Eyelash treatment Press Release

Latisse FDA-approved treatment to make your Lashes grow Thicker, Darker, and Longer!

We now accept all Medical (Not vision) insurance plans (other than Medicaid)!

Please follow these steps:

1. Call our office at (212) 741-8628 to make an appointment for eyelash treatment.

2. Fax both the front and back of your Medical (not vision) insurance card to us at: (212) 741-2390

Dr. Chynn has conducted a study on 30 women over the past 3 years (before Latisse was launched) demonstrating noticeable thicker, darker, longer lash growth after 1 month in 80% of patients!

Allergan has just announced the launch of its exciting new product Latisse, for stimulating eyelash growth. Latisse is the brand name for the drug bimatoprost, which is marketed by Allergan under the name Lumigan for the treatment of glaucoma.

“This is an interesting product extension by the same company (Allergan) that owns Botox,” says ophthalmologist Emil William Chynn, MD, MBA, the owner of Park Avenue Laser Vision in New York City. “Many people do not know that Botox was used for decades by eye surgeons to treat twitching lids and crossed eyes, before Allergan helped popularize its use for cosmetic indications. Now, cosmetic sales of Botox vastly exceed those for strictly medical uses.”

“The history of Latisse is interesting, as it points to how serendipitous observations by clinicians can often lead to new ‘blockbuster drugs’ Dr. Chynn reflects. “I remember many years ago, I was started an older gentleman with glaucoma in one eye on Lumigan. He came back a few months later with his pressure well-controlled, and I was about to discharge him, and he said, ‘hey doc, my lashes grew so long in this eye, I had to cut them because they were hitting my glasses!’”

A smart glaucoma specialist, Dr. Murray Johnstone, obtained a use patent for the use of prostaglandins such as Lumigan for both lash and hair growth. Well, Murray was shopping his patent around for years, but the beauty companies didn’t want to get involved in FDA trials, and the pharmaceutical companies didn’t want to get into consumer products. Fortunately, finally a company like Allergan with expertise in both areas recognized the market potential for this exciting new product.”

“Over the past 5 years, I conducted a pilot study at Park Avenue Laser Vision with about thirty female patients who wanted longer lashes, before Latisse launched. I asked them to bring in two tubes of their mascara, and added Lumigan to one tube, and placebo to the other and labeled one tube ‘right’ and one ‘left.’ We asked them to use this mascara regularly, once in the morning. 50% of patients exhibited significantly thicker, longer, and darker lashes, 30% had moderate improvement, and 20% had minimal or no difference. So, in summary, 80% of my patients had noticeably ‘lusher’ lashes!”

“One of my patients, Anna G., my former laser technician, is a natural blonde, and so had very light-colored lashes. After two months of intermittent use, she said her friends thought she was wearing mascara when she wasn’t! Right now, nearly my entire female staff are using our special formulation,” Dr. Chynn remarks.

“The only barrier I can envision to this becoming the next blockbuster drug like Botox for Allergan is the price point. Allergan wants to charge women $120 per month, which works out to nearly $1500 per year, which is a lot for better eyelashes. Also, since Latisse is just a re-brand of Lumigan, what’s to prevent women from coming to my office for an annual eye exam, and getting a prescription for Lumigan, instead? Both the eye exam and the prescription would be covered by their medical insurance, so they would at most have to pay a co-pay of say $20 each. Especially in this economy, it’s a lot easier to imagine women doing this instead, as their annual expense for longer, thicker, lusher lashes would be only a few hundred—not thousand—dollars per year.”

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Press-Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.