Another Ohio beauty spa loses license over bootleg drug allegations

The Ohio Board of Pharmacy on Tuesday suspended the license of a beauty spa after determining that it was giving patients dangerous drugs that lacked the proper approvals. 

In this case, the spa was injecting patients with “counterfeit” Botox that the operator said she’d gotten from a California dentist she wouldn’t identify. The board said the business also was distributing other drugs suspected to be counterfeit, including some obtained in “cash purchases” off of Facebook.

This is at least the third time this year that the board has seized the license of a company operating beauty spas on charges of using fake drugs on their patients. In January, it suspended the licenses of two companies operating clinics in Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton and Cincinnati on charges that they were fobbing off unapproved weight-loss drugs known as GLP-1s on their patients.

The instances raised concerns that many so-called “wellness” clinics were putting profits over patient safety.

The board on Tuesday summarily suspended the license of Rejuv and Renew Wellness Spa to distribute dangerous drugs. The business operates locations in Mainville and Franklin, both in Warren County between Cincinnati and Dayton.

The order suspending the license says that Board of Pharmacy inspectors visited the spa’s Mainville location on March 14. 

They found Botox, an injection used to reduce wrinkles and facial lines; Liporase, an enzyme used to undo some skin procedures, and Xeomin, a drug similar to Botox. The Botox vial lacked a National Drug Code and a manufacturer’s hologram, while the Liporase vials “had characters of an unknown language on the label,” the inspection report said.

Three days later, on March 17, drug distributor AbbVie confirmed that the Botox inspectors found was counterfeit, the inspection report said. Inspectors said they also confirmed that the Liporase found at the spa had not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

A call to the spa wasn’t returned on Wednesday. 

But Patty Cantrell, a registered nurse who co-owns the spa, said she’d gotten the drug from a dentist in the Bay Area of California, the report said.

“RN Cantrell was not willing to share the name of the dentist or the specific location from which she ordered/he shipped from,” the report said. “She said she knew him from high school and considered him a friend.”

Cantrell later told inspectors that she had been getting Botox through Allergan, an AbbVie company. But then late last year, she started getting it from the California dentist for about half the price, the report said.

Cantrell also said that she had purchased the Liporase off of Facebook for cash, and that she didn’t have documentation for the purchases. Then she seemed to allow that only some of the drugs her business was giving patients would pass muster with the pharmacy board.

“She asked that ‘if’ the Xeomin was found to be real, could she get the money back,” the report said. “She stated the product taken was worth $1,000.00 and she did not want to lose the money. She was able to produce invoices for the Xeomin.” 

The report alleged numerous other violations. They included distributing dangerous drugs at the Franklin spa even though it wasn’t registered with the Board of Pharmacy, improper storage and record keeping, and having expired and adulterated drugs.

In ordering the spa to surrender its license, the pharmacy board cited dozens of potential violations of the law and board rules, each of which carry possible fines and criminal penalties.