Focus Analysis|Thermage is on fire, it turned out to be the driving force behind the scenes

anti-aging is the ultimate proposition in the field of beauty. From daily maintenance to medical beauty, various products emerge in endlessly. And the most concerned medical beauty project this summer is undoubtedly "Thermage". How hot is

Hot Maggie? Just look at how much the stars love it.

Up to 50-year-old Yi Nengjing, and down to 25-year-old girl group THE9 member Yu Shuxin, they are all working on their own. In April of this year, after Zhong Xintong, Ruby Lin became the spokesperson of Remaggie. While abroad, Kardashian and some Hollywood movie stars are also loyal fans of Remaggie.

Ruby Lin is the endorsement of Remaji

Remaji is the Chinese translation of Thermage. It is a medical device that achieves firming and lifting effects on the face, eyes and other parts. The working principle is to reach the dermis of the skin through the treatment head. It is heated to stimulate the production of new collagen, thereby improving the skin. Because of its simplicity, non-invasiveness and "visible" effects, more and more women regard Remaggi as their first attempt at medical beauty.

How did the hot Maggie become popular?

As the first batch of post-90s turned 30 years old, anti-aging is becoming a new focus. However, unlike those born in the 70s and 80s who are keen to study the ingredients of eye creams, the generations born in the 90s believe in the anti-aging effects of medicine. The "2019 White Paper on Medical Beauty Industry" released by

pointed out that in 2019, the average age of Chinese medical beauty consumers was 24.45 years old, and the post-90s became the absolute main force. Among them, non-surgical facial rejuvenation projects, namely anti-ageing projects, surged 92.64% over the previous year. This shows that medical aesthetics is "out of the circle" from the niche plastic surgery market and into the public's vision and life.

The popularity of Hot Maggie in recent years is not unrelated to this background. Enter the keyword "Remaggie" in Xiaohongshu, and there are more than 30,000 notes. In addition, there are more than two thousand questions and answers about "Remaggie" on Xinyang Medical Beauty.

Notes on Hot Maggie in the Little Red Book

From celebrities, KOLs to amateurs, all have a heart that wants to be "fresh". Under normal circumstances, a hot Maggie can last for about a year, and the price ranges from several thousand yuan to tens of thousands of yuan. In short, there is nothing wrong with it except expensive.

Although the popularity of Remaggie has been in the past two years, the history of Remaggie is much earlier than this. Solta Medical, the manufacturer of

Thermomagnet, was established in Delaware, USA in 1999. In addition to thermomaggie high-frequency skin beauty equipment, the company's products also include ultrasonic lipolysis, laser hair removal, acne removal and other equipment.

In 2002, the first generation Thermacool TC was launched in the United States, and since then it has undergone several product changes. Thermage currently on the market mostly refers to the latest two generations of products Thermage CPT and Thermage FLX, which are mostly called the fourth and fifth generations of thermage. The improvement of

technology and the improvement of its effect is another reason for the popularity of Hot Maggie in the past two years.

starts with the Thermage CPT product, and its "comfort pulse technology" optimizes the experience of instrument therapy through gentle vibration and uniform cooling. The latest generation Thermage FLX expands the treatment range of the probe, shortens the treatment time, and realizes functions such as automatic energy adjustment. The most important thing is to reduce the pain, which has become the "hands on the door" for Remaggie to break into the mainstream.

Beijing Badachu Plastic Surgery Hospital Fang Lin once said in an interview with China Business News that one of the technical changes of Remag is that general anesthesia was initially required, but now it can only use surface anesthesia, and the complications are relatively reduced. .

But reducing the pain does not mean that it is painless. It can only be said that the pain of the same energy level FLX will be lower than the CPT. 36氪 searched Xiaohongshu with "Remaggie" as the key word, and found that a note that made Remaggie painful received 34,000 likes, indicating that it is not easy to become beautiful. Dr. Liu Hongmei, director of the Chinese Anti-aging Medical Beauty Professional Committee, said in an interview with Xinyang that under the premise of safety and tolerance, the higher the energy level of the treatment, the better the effect.

Bausch & Lomb and Dr. Kang behind Hot Maggie

mentioned Bausch & Lomb, if you thought it was just a business in glasses, then too young too simple.

In addition to selling glasses, Bausch & Lomb is also the agent of Remaggie in China. The main account of the official WeChat public account "Thermage Beauty" of Remag China is Bausch & Lomb (Shanghai) Trading Co., Ltd. Before June 2017, the name of the account was "Bauus & Lomb Medical Beauty". After that, it was verified several times to have the current "Thermage Beauty".

Picture source: WeChat public account "Thermage Beauty"

But the relationship between Bausch & Lomb and Remaggie does not stop there.

In simple terms, Bausch & Lomb and Solta Medical, the company that produces Thermomagnets, are both younger brothers of Bausch Health. They were acquired by Bausch Health in 2013 and 2014 respectively. The predecessor of

Dr. Kang is Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (hereinafter referred to as Valeant), the largest publicly listed pharmaceutical company in Canada. In 2018, the company changed its name to Boshikang, and at the same time, the focus of its business has moved from the original "pharmaceutical" to "healthy".

belongs to Dr. Kang, and his family is the agent of the other. Bausch & Lomb acts as the domestic agent of Remag, while Wuhan Shibo Medical is responsible for marketing, training and after-sales service. According to Tianyan Check, Wuhan Shibo Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. was established in 2000 with a registered capital of 30 million yuan. It focuses on eye examination and medical beauty treatment equipment.

Hot Maggie's hot sales in the past two years has made Dr. Kang a lot of money. In 2018 and 2019, the latest generation FLX of Thermage was launched in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and other Asian regions. According to the financial report of Boshikang, in the 2017, 2018 and 2019 fiscal years, the global revenue of Solta Medical, which produces thermage, was US$111 million, 135 million and 194 million, respectively, and the revenue growth mainly came from the latest version of thermage. The first generation product FLX was launched.

Although Remaggi has brought benefits to Boshikang, Boshikang's overall revenue is not optimistic.

As early as 2016 to 2017, the total debt of Valeant, which had not yet been renamed Dr. Kang, exceeded US$30 billion. For most of 2017, Valeant was selling businesses to ease the burden. In addition, Boshi Kang is also facing various legal troubles, and many states in the United States have investigated its drug pricing strategies and patient assistance programs.

Recently, Boshi Kang announced the results of the second quarter of 2020. Statistics show that the quarterly revenue was 1.664 billion US dollars, compared with 2.152 billion US dollars in the same period last year. The net loss for the quarter was US$326 million, compared with a net loss of US$171 million in the same period last year.

According to a report by the Medical Economic News, Moody’s and Fitch Ratings both rated Dr. Kang as a non-investment-grade speculative company. Moody's analysts have said that huge financial leverage has increased the risks posed by the unresolved legal issues of Dr. Kang.

Ten machines and eight fake? Hot Maggie

, which is full of true and false. "Generally this kind of recent projects with very strong winds are not very reliable, and there are too many fakes." Ms. Zhou told 36 Krypton that she wanted to try hot Maggie once, but the true and false instruments The chaotic market and the disparity in pricing between different institutions made her hesitate.

iResearch’s "Insight White Paper on China's Medical Beauty Industry in 2020" shows that in 2019, there are about 13,000 institutions with medical cosmetology qualifications in China. However, among the legal medical cosmetology institutions, 15% of the institutions still exceed the scope. The phenomenon of operation. In addition, it is estimated that there are more than 8,000 illegally operating "black medical beauty" institutions across the country. In illegal medical beauty establishments, more than 90% of medical beauty equipment is fake. Whether

is safe or not is the most worrying issue for many consumers when choosing medical beauty items. Therefore, medical devices and drugs that have FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) certification and CFDA (China Food and Drug Administration, later renamed NMPA) certification have become the confidence of medical beauty institutions for publicity. . In terms of

specific to Thermomagic, the discussion of its true and false mainly focuses on two points; one is that the latest generation of Thermage FLX does not have CFDA certification; the other is the instrumentThe proliferation of counterfeit goods in itself mainly refers to non-genuine treatment probes, counterfeit instruments, and parallel imports from regular medical aesthetics institutions.

Thermage CPT, the previous generation product of Thermage, is indeed certified by CFDA. However, in accordance with the China Food and Drug Administration Food and Drug Administration Notice No. 31 [2013], CFDA No. 198 Non-Medical Device Classification and Definition Document and No. 143 Medical Device Classification Catalogue, the latest generation Thermage FLX is no longer managed as a medical device. For products, Bausch & Lomb submits the above documents to China Customs for import, and pays taxes according to the category of "High Frequency Skin Beauty Apparatus".

Food and Drug Administration Administration Bureau [2013] No. 31 Notice

Therefore, the certification of Thermage FLX is impossible to talk about.

Wuhan Shibo Medical Equipment Co., Ltd., responsible for the after-sales and marketing of Thermage China, said in a Zhihu Q&A that most of the statements on the Internet that promote the latest generation of Thermage FLX are not certified, are mostly issued by Hong Kong or some counterfeit vendors Information.

The relevant notes on the small red book to identify the true and false of Hot Maggie

fakes flood the market, in the final analysis, it is still a profit-seeking mentality. According to a report by iResearch, the medical beauty optoelectronic equipment market is monopolized by the four major foreign equipment manufacturers, with a market share of up to 80%. However, regular optoelectronic equipment is expensive, monopolistic, and strictly controlled. There are strict requirements for the ownership institutions and practitioners. On the one hand,

is the desire of consumers on the demand side, and on the other hand, the supply side of medical and aesthetic institutions spends millions of yuan in equipment purchase prices. Thermage, sandwiched between the two, has almost unexpectedly become a popular target flooded with fakes.

verifies the authenticity of Thermage by scanning the QR code, which is a unique "trick" of the agent Bausch & Lomb to deal with the current chaotic medical beauty market in China. Users can make inquiries about professionals and professional institutions through the official website of Remag China or the official WeChat account.

However, one of the current bugs is that the institutions that were queried did not clearly distinguish between Thermage CPT and Thermage FLX that were authorized. This also allowed some medical and aesthetic institutions to play a game of words and play the side ball.

In the 1930s, my country's medical aesthetics industry was dominated by plastic surgery in public hospitals, and the types of projects that could be developed were very limited. Since private medical care entered the plastic surgery market in 1997, non-surgical items have increased, and injections have begun to be used in medical beauty. In 2015, affected by the economics of beauty, the medical beauty market entered an explosive growth period. Optoelectronic medical devices were continuously enriched and upgraded, and the prices of raw materials such as hyaluronic acid and botulinum toxin were gradually reduced.

Looking back on the development history of China’s medical beauty industry, the “beauty” thing is moving from a niche to the general public, from women to men, from middle-aged to youth... In this process, "black organizations" and "black organizations" are becoming popular. "Doctors", "black injections" and other "black history" are just like the pains of the medical aesthetics industry. It will take some time for the multi-party participation and joint supervision system born out of the pain to really be firmly established.