It seems that after the injection of botox, a wonderful toxin which can do a little bit of everything, the beauty industry is looking for another poison for a botox like alternative. Termed Syn-ake, it is a compound derived to mimic the venom of a temple viper created by Pentapharm, a Swiss pharmaceutical company.
The idea is that Syn-ake, found in such skin care lines as Sonya Dakar or Borba, will penetrate the skin to relax the muscle. Syn-ake, what a clever name, is actually a tripeptide (a fancy word for protein), which works similar to Waglerin. Waglerin is the compound found in snake venom. This was shown in a study sponsored by Pentapharm, the manufacturer of the compound, to reduce wrinkles in about half of the participants of which there were only twenty eight. By the way I yet to see a single skin care product demonstrating a skin care study sponsored by the company who made it that states that there product is completely ineffective and useless.
The cost of the product is about $280 for a one ounce bottle.
Although this sounds fresh and exciting, before jumping at the chance to apply snake venom to certain things should be analyzed. Botox (injectable) is effective in almost every patient. with an experienced botox injector. Cost wise, the snake venom may even cost more than Botox.
The verdict is still out on how effective the snake venom will be as it is not regulated by the FDA since it is a cosmecutical not a pharmaceutical product. Incidentally, Botox is working on a topical version of its product to do a similar thing.
My opinion is that I do not think it is probable that a product will be able to penetrate the epidermis and dermis and then selectively target the underlying muscles. Although Botox seems almost boring compared to something as sexy as snake venom, it is likely not going to be replaced anytime soon by a topical Syn-ake cream.