Botox producers are leaving the Russian market, prices of breast implants are rising, stocks are falling… In Russia, aesthetic clinics and their clients are caught in the turmoil of the effects of Western sanctions. In March, US company Abbvie, the exporter of “Botox” – the number one botulinum toxin-based product – withdrew from the booming Russian market. Botox shares are “melting”, “causing concern among clinic managers who are accustomed to using this reference product,” underlines Yulia Frankulova, co-founder of the Russian National Association of Nachem Aesthetic Medicine Clinics.

Breast implants are also in a complicated situation due to a lack of Russian manufacturers. In fact, all artificial organs are imported, 60% of which are imported from the United States, 13% from Germany, and countries that allow Russia. As a result, in March, the price of implants first tripled, standing at 20% higher than before the attack against Ukraine.

This is a real blow to the Russian aesthetic medicine sector, which in 2021 was 969 million dollars, which is 2% more compared to 2020, according to a study conducted by the Russian company Amigo Consulting. In 2020, 621,600 aesthetic procedures, both surgical and non-surgical, were performed in Russia, ranking 9th in the world, according to the International Society of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery (ISAPS).