Botox-maker pharma giant Allergan counting on burgeoning 'brotox' market

Wrinkles, double chin, sagging skin: They're no longer concerns only of women. Men are increasingly worried about maintaining a young look, and increasingly willing to spend money to get or keep it.

That's just what the Allergan pharmaceutical company is counting on: the "brotox" drive. Allergan recently wrapped up a $70.5bn (£44.5bn) deal to buy the maker of Botox injections, and is now adding Kythera Biopharmaceuticals Inc. to its stable for $2.1bn. Kythera has an experimental drug for male-pattern baldness and a non-surgical treatment for double chins.

The key to making it all work will be youth-obsessed men, Allergan executives believe males make up about 13% of the US "facial aesthetic" market, but the pharma giant hopes to plump that up.

"We're starting to see signs of life about men being more open about talking to a doctor about aging," Allergan chief executive Brent Saunders tells Bloomberg. He said it would be a "home run" to get men to represent up to 25% of the market.

The number of men getting Botox treatment more than quadrupled from 2000 to 2014, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. That was the fastest rate of growth for such treatment for males, but still less than half as fast as the growth among women.

Saunders's company was known as Actavis Plc until this week, when it took the name of the Botox drugmaker it bought earlier this year. The old Allergan had $2.2bn in Botox sales last year.

Saunders has put his face where his mouth is. At a California meeting with Allergan sales reps he got Botox — er, brotox — injections on stage.