Allergan Aesthetics’ Carrie Strom on the ‘aesthetics generation’ and new frontiers for injectables

In addition to Botox, Allergan Aesthetics itself a subsidiary of pharmaceutical company AbbVie, which houses aesthetics brands including Juvéderm, Skinvive, Kybella and Coolsculpting, among others. In its full-year 2023 earnings released in February, AbbVie reported that the global net revenue of its aesthetics portfolio was about $5.3 billion, with global Botox Cosmetic’s net revenue reaching $2.7 billion and global Juvéderm’s net revenue equalling $1.4 billion. Leading this portfolio of aesthetics products, and guiding the future of the aesthetics industry, is Carrie Strom, svp of AbbVie and Global Allergan Aesthetics president.

Strom has kept busy over the last year. In May 2023, Allergan received FDA approval for Skinvive by Juvéderm, and in early Oct. 2023, it became available for patients to receive as a treatment. Skinvive has been available in Europe since 2017 and marketed under the name “Volite.” Plus, the company has driven countless marketing moments, including the first-ever Juvéderm Day in Aug. 2023 and the fifth-annual National Botox Day in Nov. 2023. In addition, Strom has busied herself by shoring up Botox’s status, as competitors, including Jeuveau and long-lasting neurotoxin Daxxify, nip at its heels.

In conversation on the Glossy Beauty podcast, Strom discussed how younger consumers are changing the aesthetics market and how Skinvive can serve as an entry point for new patients, among other topics. Below is an excerpt of the conversation, which has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Skin quality as a new frontier

“When you think about it, skin quality is something that consumers and our [medical provider] customers have been interested in, through topical skin care, facials and laser treatments. We know in aesthetics that multi-modality is a great approach, depending on what the patient needs. With Skinvive by Juvederm, we’ve created this injectable micro droplet hyaluronic acid solution, which is a nice new option for patients. … We hear customers use it as the entry point to start their aesthetics journey. Or it can be something that is incremental with what they’re already doing.”

The emerging Gen-Z customer base

“We are seeing more people interested in these products as they’re being normalized. As people are growing up in more of an aesthetics generation, there is more interest and acceptance. If the typical aesthetics patient used to start her journey at 50 years old, now we’re seeing the average age more like in the early 40s. We think that [Gen Z] are going to have kind of more modern expectations around how they interact with the brands. … There’ll be an expectation that technology modernizes to enable a relationship between the brand and the patient and the consumer, which is what Allegan Aesthetics is focused on.”

Acquisition appetite

“There’s absolutely an appetite to acquire or have an external science strategy. We have a lot of new products to look forward to in the future, but we understand there’s also whitespace. There are areas where we don’t currently have R&D programs in place. And that’s where the acquisition or the external business development strategy comes in. [In 2020], we were able to acquire a company called Luminera. Luminera has what we call hybrid fillers. We saw an opportunity to expand to a hybrid filler, a hyaluronic acid, plus a bio-stimulatory element; it’s a unique asset. Our plan is to bring it into the U.S. and other key markets. It’s a nice example of looking at the pipeline we have and then looking at the white space and where we can complement our existing pipeline with external technology via acquisition.”