Does Freezing Botox Change It?

Botox comes as a powder and is shipped on dry ice so it is frozen. It's not as if a physician gets it fresh and then can freeze it. Once the physician needs the Botox powder is mixed with a sterile liquid to make a solution. That solution is then kept refrigerated until the next dose is needed and in busy practices this might be less than one day. An expiration date or the date mixed is written on the bottle. Using fresh mixed or refrigerated Botox has not made any clinical difference when the stored time is less than two weeks.

Hi Tilly's Mom.  Botox is freeze dried when it is received and not frozen.  Like any other pharmaceutical product, Botox has a useful shelf life and this shelf life changes once saline solution is added (reconstitution).  

As long as the Botox has not expired (which it rarely will at any office that uses it regularly), using it on the same day is no different than using it days or weeks later, especially if it has not been reconstituted.

It sounds like the MD that is purporting to use it on the same day is trying to use this as a marketing tactic to scare consumers into thinking this is the only way it will be useful.

It sounds like you may have some confusing information.  Botox is shipped from the manufacturer on dry ice.  It is then kept in the refrigerator at the recommended temperature until it is reconstituted and used.  Reconstituting it, means that you are mixing the dry powder in the vial with saline so that it can be injected with a syringe.  In general, the Botox should then be used within four hours, but some studies have shown that it last much longer.  In our office, we open a new vial for each patient and reconstitute it right infront of them and then inject it.  That way, the patient knows that they are getting the freshest Botox available and also that they are getting the whole vial.  It would be  inpracticel and unnecessary to use the Botox the day it arrives from the manufacturer. 

 

Good Luck.

When Botox first came out, we used to have Botox Days--we thought that it had to be mixed fresh and used that day or it would lose its potency. (As you have read, it comes to us as a freeze-dried product that is kept frozen until it is reconstituted with saline.) What studies have shown is that its potency will remain the same for two weeks or more. So, most of us keep it refrigerated (not frozen!) after reconstitution and use it for the next two weeks.

I suspect if a doctor is still doing Botox Days, they either have a very small volume of Botox patients, or they are uninformed.

BOTOX comes as a dry powder in a tiny sealed vial.  It is shipped frozen but it can also simply be kept cold.  Once reconstitute, Allergan, the manufacture has told the FDA that the product should be used within 4 hours or discarded.  However, they have also told doctors that the product is good for many weeks if kept in a refrigerator once reconstituted with saline for injection.  Practically most offices rapidly use up their reconstituted BOTOX so it is virtually never stored once reconstituted.