Evaluating botulinum toxin products for clinical use requires accurate, complete, and unbiased data

Abstract

Picket, AndyToxin Science Limited, Wrexham, UK; Botulinum research Center, UMASS Dartmouth, MA, USAModern clinical use of botulinum toxin (BoNT) by doctors requires evidence- based facts and data to support their work. In particular, these need to be unbiased and complete. Too often in the past, speculative statements have been used and repeated until injectors have come to believe they are solid facts.1 Yet no supporting data exist. Consequently, doctors have often been reluctant to change to or even try other products because of what they have been told. This has not been a good situation for either clinicians or patients. We have published about these "urban legends"1 and tried, on many occasions, to correct these inaccuracies (see, for example,2,3).