Botox producers are leaving the Russian market, the prices of breast implants are rising, stocks are collapsing… In Russia, aesthetic clinics and their customers are caught up in the turmoil of the effects of Western sanctions. In March, the American company Abbvie, exporter of “Botox” – the number one botulinum toxin-based product – withdrew from the flourishing Russian market. Botox stocks are “melting”, “causing the concern of clinic managers accustomed to using this reference product”, underlines Yulia Frangoulova, co-founder of the Russian National Association of Nakem Aesthetic Medicine Clinics.
Breast implants are also in a complex situation, due to a lack of Russian producers. Indeed, all the prostheses are imported, including 60% from the United States and 13% from Germany, countries sanctioning Russia. Result, in March, the prices of implants were first multiplied by three, before stabilizing at a level 20% higher than before the offensive against Ukraine.
This is a real blow for the Russian aesthetic medicine sector which amounted to 969 million dollars in 2021, up 2% compared to 2020, according to a study by the Russian company Amiko Consulting. In 2020, 621,600 aesthetic procedures, both surgical and non-surgical, were performed in Russia, which ranks 9th in the world, according to the International Society for Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery (ISAPS).