Beauty and the MD : Doctors Venture Into the Cosmetics Business With In-Office Sales
TODAY MANY doctors have entered the cosmetics business, selling non-prescription skin-care products right in their offices. Like beauty advisers in department stores, dermatologists and plastic surgeons are now recommending lines of cleansers, astringents and moisturizers. Some physicians formulate their products, others add their labels to existing generics, and still others sell brand-name items designed specifically for sale in doctors’ offices.
Beverly Hills dermatologist Letantia Bussell created her product line, Beverly Hills Proform, because “my patients always asked me what to use, and I didn’t find any one line that addressed all their needs.” Originally sold only in her office to patients with complexion problems, Proform is now sold in selected stores across the country and will soon be available in selected J. C. Penney stores in Southern California.
RejuvenAge, which was developed for use with the prescription drug Retin-A, is a brand-name line sold in a number of doctors’ offices. The six-item collection was tested by dermatologist Albert Kligman, the professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine who invented Retin-A and first reported its anti-aging effects. The line features a facial cleanser, four moisturizers (two with a sun-protection factor of 6 and two with an SPF of 15) and a nighttime emollient.
Robert Kotler, a Century City cosmetic surgeon, sells RejuvenAge to patients who use Retin-A as part of what he calls “a complete program to treat wrinkles.” Kotler, a clinical instructor of surgery at the UCLA School of Medicine, says he chose to sell the line because Kligman’s name is associated with it. “He’s the dean of dermatology today, so his name is a very important credential to be attached to the product,” Kotler explains.
The question of medical ethics is bound to arise when doctors begin to sell cosmetic products. The American Academy of Dermatologists has taken the official stand that “selling products is permissible as long as it is in the best interest of the patient,” according to J. Richard Allison Jr. of Columbia, S.C., chairman of the academy’s ethics committee. But he and Eugene P. Schoch Jr. of Austin, Tex., another member of the committee, agree that patients become a captive audience for doctors eager to make a profit. “There’s something psychological that happens when a doctor puts something in your hand and says, ‘This is my product,’ ” says Allison. “It’s a one-to-one relationship that can be exploited,” Schoch adds.
“I never tell patients they must use my products--no reputable dermatologist would do that.” Bussell says. “But I recommend them because I know exactly what’s in them. I know I can stand behind them.”
Kligman says that although he suggests that his patients use a moisturizer with Retin-A, he does not single out RejuvenAge. In fact, Kligman says, he does not endorse RejuvenAge or any other cosmetic product.
Are the products physicians sell really any better than the skin-care preparations sold in department stores and pharmacies? Obviously, the doctors who sell them think so. But ethics-committee member Schoch says: “They are absolutely not inherently better. Dermatologists are not pharmaceutical chemists, and they shouldn’t try to be.” On the other hand, Allison counters, some of the products may have value. “Some physicians started out as pharmacists--they know what they’re doing. Sometimes these products are the same things you can buy in a store, and other times they are not.”
