To “better protect the population from illegal hyaluronic acid injections”, a prescription is now mandatory to obtain injectable hyaluronic acid-based devices, the Ministry of Health said on Friday, following the publication of a decree. “For several years, an informal and lucrative market in which individuals and non-health professionals obtain and perform aesthetic injections of hyaluronic acid on themselves or others has developed,” underlined the Directorate General of Health (DGS) in a press release.
Prescriptions will only be issued by the “doctor or dental surgeon”
The decree published Friday in the Official Journal provides that the delivery of injectable hyaluronic acid-based devices will be accessible only on medical prescription for patients or clients, and within the framework of their professional use for doctors and dental surgeons. Dispensing remains possible in pharmacies, but, for the public, “only on prescription from a doctor or dental surgeon”, indicated the ministry.
Only doctors can now prescribe these devices for medical or aesthetic purposes, with dental surgeons being authorized to prescribe them only for medical purposes. It is therefore “necessary for people wishing to use injectable hyaluronic acid products to contact their doctor or dental surgeon,” added the ministry.
Complications linked to illegal injections
Furthermore, the website dedicated to reporting adverse health events will soon be updated to allow events related to aesthetic products and practices to be reported, according to the press release. At the end of March 2023, 200 cosmetic surgeons asked the authorities to ban the free sale of hyaluronic acid products which are used, for example, to plump up the lips, warning of “complications, sometimes extremely serious”, from illegal injections.
“Hundreds of injectors, non-doctors, carry out illegal acts on the population, in particular the youngest and most vulnerable, with great publicity on social networks,” they underlined in a column. Several cases of illegal injections have come to court.
Heavy penalties for these practices
At the end of April, the Versailles criminal court sentenced a woman convicted of illegally performing hyaluronic acid injections on several dozen people in Yvelines between 2021 and 2023.
In mid-September 2023, two sisters, very present on social networks, were sentenced in Valenciennes, in the North) to prison and suspended sentences for hundreds of illegal botox and hyaluronic acid injections.