Health Companies Think Fat-Freezing Is the New Botox
- Allergan, Hologic do back-to-back deals for body sculpting
- Medical aesthetics market projected at $10.5 billion by 2020
A doctor holds an instrument used in CoolSculpting in Los Angeles.
Photographer: Anne Cusack/LA Times via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
At Dr. Larry Fan’s plastic surgery practice in San Francisco, patients are clamoring to get their unwanted fat chilled away. Big drug and medical device companies have noticed.
They’re known as non-invasive slimming procedures. In one, a device placed on fatty parts of the body cools the area to freezing temperatures -- killing vulnerable fat cells. With no knives or anesthesia required, the procedures are “wildly popular” across all ages and with both men and women, said Fan, even at up to $4,000 for each treatment session.