Treatments 'tested on consumers'

Anti-wrinkle treatments which are not properly regulated are increasingly used in the UK, a report warns.

Injections to smooth facial lines, called dermal fillers, are subject to strict rules in the US which do not exist here.

Consumer group Which? says UK consumers risk being used as "guinea pigs" for the "unproven and unregulated" anti-wrinkle treatments.

More than 400,000 people here have the non-surgical procedures every year. Up to 65 dermal fillers are available in Europe compared to just seven approved for use in the US, clinic owner and consultant dermatologist Nick Lowe told Which?

Dr Lowe said: "Fillers are released in Europe without sufficient scrutiny, information and education on the best way to deliver them."

Which? is calling on the Government to strengthen the regulatory system to clamp down on potentially useless or even dangerous products. The consumer group's health campaigner Jenny Driscoll said: "At the moment, Britain is effectively a testing ground for cosmetic treatments. Consumers here do not benefit from the effective and stringent regulation systems that Americans have."

Dermal fillers are injected into the skin to smooth out lines and make the skin appear younger. Their use in the UK is covered mainly by EU medical devices legislation, described by Which? as "incredibly weak".

The consumer group names Isolagen, a product billed as a non-surgical facelift, as one example of a treatment which was used in the UK without being stringently regulated.

The brand's US parent firm closed down its UK operations earlier this year. Isolagen Inc said the UK closure was due to "significant losses" and was not product or safety-related.

A spokeswoman for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the Government's medicines watchdog, told Which? the regulatory status of dermal fillers was currently "undetermined". "The European Commission has undertaken to look at the issue further and produced a scoping paper, which is under discussion, to arrive at a UK position on how the products should be regulated," she added.