原声播报90：杜绝野蛮生长，医美行业遭遇整顿

Regulatory Headwinds Take Luster Off Beauty Industry Stocks

杜绝野蛮生长，医美行业遭遇整顿

【文中生词】
battering 重创；连续打击
plunge 骤降
bourse 交易所
issuance 发行
wrinkle 皱纹


【词汇延展】

liposuction 抽脂术
abdominoplasty 腹壁整形术
blepharoplasty 眼睑整容术
debridement 清创术
sclerotherapy 硬化疗法


【单词详解】
wrinkle
n. 皱纹
a slight line or fold in something, especially fabric or the skin of the face

近义词
rugosity 皱纹
plication 褶皱
crease 折痕
frounce 使起皱纹
wrinkly 老人（俚语）

例句
Ben brushed smooth a wrinkle in his trousers.
本把他裤子上的一个褶皱刷平了。

The skin on her cheeks and around her eyes was beginning to wrinkle.
她脸颊上和眼睛周围的皮肤开始起皱纹了。


over-the-counter
adj. 非处方的
sold lawfully without prescription

adj. 场外交易的
not traded or effected on an organized securities exchange

关联词组
over-the-counter market 柜台市场
over-the-counter trading 现货交易
over-the-counter transaction 场外交易

例句
You should never use any over-the-counter drug on a regular, continued basis or in large quantities, except on your doctor’s advice.
除了医生的建议，你不应该定期、持续或大量使用任何非处方药物。

In national over-the-counter trading yesterday, Clarcor shares tumbled $6.125 to close at $35.625.
昨天在全国场外交易中，克拉克股票跌了$6.125，以$35.625收盘。


Things aren’t looking too pretty for the medical beauty industry. The stocks of a number of businesses have taken quite a battering this week after regulators toughened rules on the sector.

Among the worst hit were Hong Kong-listed Sisram and Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical. Their shares both plunged more than 12% on Wednesday.

Okay, so China’s getting stricter on the sector? How come?

Well, it seems like regulators are getting worried about different aspects of the country’s so-called medical beauty industry. 

Caixin has learned that regulators are bearing down on the potentially risky practice of lending cash to people for them to spend on cosmetic medical procedures, then bundling these loans up into asset-backed securities which are traded on Chinese exchanges.

The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges have barred loans tied to these cosmetic procedures, which are usually taken out by consumers,  from being part of asset-backed securities traded on these bourses, as according to a person familiar with the new rules, which will be applied to only new issuances.

Now aside from these financial risks, there are also concerns about the safety medical practice themselves. And that’s because a huge number of businesses in these areas are operating without proper qualification. In fact, in 2019 alone, there were reportedly more than 80,000 businesses unlawfully operating medical beauty procedures in China, with two out of every three cosmetics injection products said to be illegal. As a result, a number of these cosmetic beauty procedures ended up with people involved in medical emergencies and even dying due to negligence. 

One recent high-profile case involved an online influencer who died on July 13 following liposuction two months earlier. An investigation found that the clinic that had performed the liposuction lacked expertise, took improper steps during the operation and failed to act in a timely manner during post-surgery follow-up assessments. In light of tragic cases such as these, there have been calls for tougher rules on businesses offering this kind of procedure. 

Okay, so this all sounds very alarming. So, how is the country trying to clean up the sector then?

Well, China’s top drug and medical device regulator is rolling out stricter rules on an increasingly popular beauty procedure - chemical peeling. 

Okay, and what is chemical peeling?

Well it’s not a way to eat oranges. It involves applying a chemical solution to the skin to remove the outer layers of the skin. There are claims that this will help your skin grow back smoother and wrinkle-free. But, there are also some serious potential risks. That includes scaring, infections and most scary of all – one of the ingredients in particularly intense versions of this procedure – so-called deep chemical peels – can even lead to potential damage to your heart, liver and kidneys.

Therefore, the regulator now says that such chemical peels should only be performed by trained professionals at qualified hospitals or clinics. It also says that over-the-counter cosmetics should not be marketed with inappropriate terms such as “skin renewal,” so as to prevent misleading customers.

But this is just one procedure. Why would such tough rules on just chemical peeling rattle the shares of medical beauty companies?

Well we shouldn’t underestimate the value of this single beauty trend. It’s actually a thriving market that was valued in May at 900 million yuan a year, which is unbelievable to me. Now, given how chemical peels are one of the three main categories of “medical beauty” procedures available in China, tough regulations on this area will definitely be felt across the wider market.