Allergan Is Not Supplying Bin Laden With Botox, Despite the Headlines
Allergan (AGN) is being unfairly blamed for supplying terrorists with botulinum toxin, the paralyzing ingredient in Botox. Although no actual terrorists have ever used the toxin in an attack -- you'd only need a tiny drop of the stuff to kill a human -- Scientific American has a scary new article out that argues consumer demand for Botox has fueled a counterfeit Botox industry which could be tapped by evildoers. Osama bin Laden did once attempt to obtain the toxin, apparently. SA uses the brand "Botox" in its headline, which must have furrowed some brows at Allergan HQ (if any execs there can still do that).
The real threat here is not from Allergan. Rather, it's from unprofessional clowns on the fringe of the cosmetic dermatology industry. You can buy Botox illegally on eBay, for instance. (Here's a current auction for a box, and here's an instructional DVD on how to prep and inject it.)
Worse than the people who are diverting supply that ought to be under the control of legit physicians are the factories who funnel the stuff wholesale to unscrupulous doctors. Five New York doctors pled guilty to using unapproved Botox produced for "research" purposes last year. They face prison and $100,000 fines. The president of the company that supplied them, Toxin Research International in Arizona, is serving nine years in federal prison.
But even those guys probably don't have the kind of unadulterated botulinum toxin that Al Qaeda needs. The company told the Orange County Register:
We only produce and keep .001% (one one-thousandth of 1%) of what would be necessary to consider a threat.Nonetheless, the meme won't die. The Botox-terrorism link was first made in November 2001, right after the World Trade Center attacks. It's too good a headline for reporters and editors to give up.
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