The beauty market never fails to surprise. After the “Zoom boom”, the trend that appeared with the rise of teleworking during the Covid-19 crisis, and which led many people, frightened to discover on their screens during videoconference meetings their mines of papier-mâché and their wrinkles, to rush to Botox and hyaluronic acid injections, now gives way to the GLP-1 effect.
Not that the aesthetic medicine market needs a new boost. With a turnover of 16.3 billion dollars in 2023 (15 billion euros) compared to 10.9 billion dollars four years earlier, the business is flourishing, despite a slight decline in growth, expected consequence of the global economic slowdown. “The market grew by 2.9%, whereas until now we were on a trend of 7% to 8%, but we should find this dynamic again in the coming years »details Laurent Brones, development director of the Symatese company and member of the International Master Course on Aging Science (Imcas), one of the major global meetings for professionals in aesthetic surgery and medicine, where he presented , at the beginning of February, the sector’s results.
The United States, driving force of the market
With nearly 48% of sales, the United States remains the driving force of this market – Europe only comes in third position, neck and neck with Asia-Pacific – and, unsurprisingly, the melting pot of new trends in the sector. The latest, whose wave is only just beginning, promises to be more than lucrative… and unexpected.
Indeed, it stems from the surge in prescriptions for new anti-obesity drugs, marketed by the Danish laboratory Novo Nordisk and its American rival Lilly. These injectable treatments, whose active substances are analogues of GLP-1, a natural hormone released by the intestine after a meal, and which helps regulate appetite and caloric intake, have enjoyed incredible success since their authorization thanks to to the promised spectacular and rapid weight loss. To the point that their manufacturers, overwhelmed by demand, have been struggling for months to supply the patients who demand them, despite factories operating at full capacity. Researchers are warning about the currently unknown side effects of these drugs and their health risks.
This frenzy around Wegovy and Zepbound, the only two drugs in this new generation of GLP-1 analogues currently approved for the treatment of obesity and overweight, has given rise to a strange trend in clinics. of aesthetic medicine and surgery across the Atlantic: the growing arrival of patients undergoing GLP-1 treatments who have come to plump up buttocks that have become flabby or cheeks that are a little too hollow.
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