Beauty from a deadly toxin

Botox, which is derived from the deadliest poison known to humankind, is the US' hottest-selling cosmetic, and it is due to land in India

Prasenjit Chowdhury Delhi

In 1998, it was Viagra. In 2004 it is yet another wonder drug, a 'magic bullet' called Botox. Suffering from WMD concussions, President George W Bush, known for his facial contortions and beady eyes, got the final solution: a drug that would, once and for all, give him a smooth, honest demeanour. Too much to ask for? Think cheap gas, spilling oil, erection pills and anti-wrinkle toxin.

The botulinum toxin, a single chain protein (protoxin), is a very potent poison, one gram of which, "dispersed evenly and inhaled", can kill millions. It is a declared potential bio-weapon; it is said to be the most poisonous substance known. Every shovelful of dirt contains the bacillus that will produce botulinum. While the bacteria and spores themselves are harmless, the toxin produced when the spores are grown in an anaerobic environment can cause weakness and paralysis, and, eventually, death.

So how does this hideous venom take such a benign form as to make about 500,000 Americans a year pay US$ 300 a session to their dermatologists for injecting tiny doses of the modified botulinum toxin, Botox, into their foreheads to flatten those signposts of advancing age, wrinkles? Crow's feet and frown lines are under showcause notice.

It's the same old story of going apparently against a chimera of undiminished power and undying youth and here is why Botox should be so interposed with Viagra: The lure of perpetual youth, a never-ending erection, cowboy machismo and light-footed femininity. No matter what the age, the failed experiment to achieve immortality in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels seems to have been touched upon by modern drugmakers. Not the immortality of life this time, rather the immortality of youth, as the corporate campaign mills are already abuzz with Botox's 'liberating' power, much like the potency pill and the birth pill.

Not exactly close on the heels of Viagra, this 'wonder' drug, Botox, manufactured by Allergen Inc, a Californian company, is a toxin derivative that temporarily paralyses the tiny muscles that cause wrinkles. So, if you're beginning to feel 40-ish, scrutinised your mug in your private boudoir for the odd wrinkle beneath or above both of your eyes and for the odd silver specks on your crown, your worry ends here. A few shots are said to transport you to the past, to your teens, thus making you defy what The New York Times calls the "relentless insult of adult life".

The new regimen of cosmetic surgery is now coming to be packaged as "Botox therapy" (not, blessedly, as "botulinum therapy" — patients have only so much understanding). In 2002, this non-surgical method of reducing wrinkles gained the approval of the hardnosed US Food and Drug Administ-ration (FDA) for the treatment of "frown lines". According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, it has already become the fastest-growing cosmetic procedure in the US.

And that's putting it mildly — Botox therapy is on a spree. Since the FDA's approval, sales have rocketed. In 2003, Allergen Inc sold US$ 564 million worth of Botox. Obviously, as its popularity has grown, so has the illicit market: last year, an FDA investigation found blackmarket botulinum shipments coming to America's shores from all over the world, much of it from China, where botulinum toxin is sold under the brand names BTX-A and Botutox.