Weight-Loss Drugs Create "Significant Opportunity" for Aesthetics Company Galderma

The increased use of weight-loss drugs has created a big opportunity for aesthetics company Galderma, its CEO told CNBC on Thursday.

"We were actually the first one to show that if you take two of our products [filler and Sculptra]... you can mitigate some of the facial sagging that you see if you have significant weight loss," CEO Flemming Ørnskov said.

The increasing rate of patients using the so-called GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, its weight-loss equivalent Wegovy, or Zepbound, especially in the U.S., is now feeding into "the very strong growth that we're seeing in our aesthetics portfolio," Ørnskov told CNBC's "Europe Early Edition."

"It's a significant opportunity for us, but it's still early days," he said.

About one in 10 U.S. adults now report taking GLP-1 drugs for weight loss, a rapidly expanding patient population that companies such as Galderma hope will fuel demand for treatments addressing facial volume loss, sometimes dubbed "Ozempic face."

Ørnskov's comments came as Galderma, which makes brands of botulinum toxin, colloquially known as botox, facial fillers and collagen stimulators, reported nearly 25% sales growth at constant currencies year-on-year.

The so-called botox boom refers to the increasing demand for non-surgical cosmetic injectables like botulinum toxin, dermal fillers and collagen stimulators.

Galderma's growth in the U.S., the by far largest market for GLP-1 drugs, outpaced growth elsewhere at 32%, versus 19% in the rest of the world.

The Swiss-listed stock was little moved in mid-morning trading.