ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION Botulinum toxin (BT) has been used with remarkable success to treat various disorders caused by hyperactivity of muscles or of exocrine glands (1). Its use to treat pain disorders is currently being explored (2). With the exception of a BT drug based upon BT type B, the original armamentarium of BT drugs has not been changed for many years until Xeomin® (Merz Pharmaceuticals, Frankfurt/M, Germay) became available in 2005. In 2010 Xeomin® was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under the non-proprietary name incobotulinumtoxinA. Also a BT type A drug, Xeomin® was the fi rst BT drug in which the complexing proteins (CPs) had been removed.