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American Morning
New Skin Treatment Designed to Keep You Wrinkle-Free for Life
Aired February 28, 2003 - 08:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's page Dr. Gupta right now. You look good, you feel good, right? A new skin treatment designed to keep you wrinkle-free for life, and it could soon be available here in the U.S. as well.
Sanjay has been looking into it and joins us now in the CNN Center to fill us in on this.
Good morning, doctor.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Yes, looking good, feeling good, that's certainly the goal for thousands of people, and the FDA may be one step closer after today to making that easier as well. An advisory committee is meeting today to actually determine whether or not a product, a wrinkle product known as Artecoll should actually be looked into for approval. This is a product called Artecoll which is a wrinkle -- actually tries to get rid of the wrinkles by injecting microspheres which are encapsulated in collagen.
Now there has been a lot of sort of wrinkle treatments out there for quite some time, but this is meant to be a permanent fix, actually injecting it underneath the skin, underneath the wrinkles, and within three months, actually plumping up the wrinkles to make them go away.
We've heard a lot about Botox over the past several months certainly That works very differently. That actually paralyzes the muscles around wrinkles and doesn't last more than several months, or requires several different injections. This is, again, meant to be a permanent fix. It's going to be looked into today. There are good things and bad things. There are some safety concerns with Artecoll, which is why people are looking into it more closely. Doctors in Europe and Mexico, several other countries, have been using this for quite sometime.
What they have found is that rejection of the actual micro spheres can occur. They can actually work their way through the skin. That's not a pretty sight. Resurfacing of the skin can occur as a result of that, lumping, and then subsequently correction using other procedures. Again, because this is a permanent procedure, if there is a problem, it actually requires another procedure to try and fix it. This advisory committee meeting balancing all of those risks, maybe one step closer -- Bill.
HEMMER: If they do move one step closer, if the committee gives its approval, what sort of time frame do you look at for allowing this to be legal here in the United States?
GUPTA: Well, what they're looking for specifically, they're looking for safety issues to make sure that if it's released to the mass public, that it's still going to be a pretty safe product.
Now the medication, this particular product already exists. This isn't something still under development. So if they determine that it should be recommended for approval, it could happen pretty quickly, within several months.
HEMMER: Got it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Life>
Aired February 28, 2003 - 08:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's page Dr. Gupta right now. You look good, you feel good, right? A new skin treatment designed to keep you wrinkle-free for life, and it could soon be available here in the U.S. as well.
Sanjay has been looking into it and joins us now in the CNN Center to fill us in on this.
Good morning, doctor.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Yes, looking good, feeling good, that's certainly the goal for thousands of people, and the FDA may be one step closer after today to making that easier as well. An advisory committee is meeting today to actually determine whether or not a product, a wrinkle product known as Artecoll should actually be looked into for approval. This is a product called Artecoll which is a wrinkle -- actually tries to get rid of the wrinkles by injecting microspheres which are encapsulated in collagen.
Now there has been a lot of sort of wrinkle treatments out there for quite some time, but this is meant to be a permanent fix, actually injecting it underneath the skin, underneath the wrinkles, and within three months, actually plumping up the wrinkles to make them go away.
We've heard a lot about Botox over the past several months certainly That works very differently. That actually paralyzes the muscles around wrinkles and doesn't last more than several months, or requires several different injections. This is, again, meant to be a permanent fix. It's going to be looked into today. There are good things and bad things. There are some safety concerns with Artecoll, which is why people are looking into it more closely. Doctors in Europe and Mexico, several other countries, have been using this for quite sometime.
What they have found is that rejection of the actual micro spheres can occur. They can actually work their way through the skin. That's not a pretty sight. Resurfacing of the skin can occur as a result of that, lumping, and then subsequently correction using other procedures. Again, because this is a permanent procedure, if there is a problem, it actually requires another procedure to try and fix it. This advisory committee meeting balancing all of those risks, maybe one step closer -- Bill.
HEMMER: If they do move one step closer, if the committee gives its approval, what sort of time frame do you look at for allowing this to be legal here in the United States?
GUPTA: Well, what they're looking for specifically, they're looking for safety issues to make sure that if it's released to the mass public, that it's still going to be a pretty safe product.
Now the medication, this particular product already exists. This isn't something still under development. So if they determine that it should be recommended for approval, it could happen pretty quickly, within several months.
HEMMER: Got it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Life>
