Dysport: what it is, cost, results and how it compares to Botox

Dysport is the brand name for abobotulinumtoxinA, a botulinum toxin type A injection.

The FDA approved it on April 29, 2009, for cervical dystonia, a medical condition of the neck muscles, and for the temporary improvement of moderate to severe glabellar (frown) lines in adults under 65.

In the United States the aesthetic product is marketed by Galderma, which also runs the ASPIRE rewards program.

Functionally, Dysport temporarily reduces the activity of the muscles its approval names: the procerus and corrugator, the ones that pull the brows together and crease the skin between them.

The Botox Cosmetic label describes how botulinum toxin does that — it blocks acetylcholine, the chemical messenger a nerve uses to contract a muscle, producing a partial, localized reduction in muscle activity that slowly reverses as the nerve connection regrows.

Each vial contains the toxin with human serum albumin and lactose.

Separately, the label contraindicates Dysport in people allergic to cow's milk protein, because the product may contain trace amounts of it.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons' 2025 Procedural Statistics report says neuromodulator injections (Botox, Dysport, Letybo, Xeomin, Jeuveau, Daxxify) accounted for about half of all minimally invasive procedures performed in 2025.

Galderma is also developing a next-generation toxin, relabotulinumtoxinA (brand name Relfydess).

As of our October 2026 check, it is not FDA-approved in the United States; Galderma announced on February 2, 2026 that the FDA accepted its resubmission for review.

Dysport has one cosmetic area on its US label: moderate to severe glabellar lines — the frown lines, or "11s," between the eyebrows — in adults younger than 65.

The labeled dose for that area is 50 units total, given as five 10-unit injections.

Crow's feet and forehead lines are not on the label.

Treating those areas with Dysport is off-label: that use is not on any current US label for the product.

Other toxins do carry those areas — Botox Cosmetic is approved for frown lines, crow's feet, forehead lines and vertical neck bands — so product and area do not always match on a clinic menu, and it is a fair question to ask which toxin a quoted treatment uses.

Dysport's other approved uses are medical: cervical dystonia, and spasticity in patients 2 years and older.

And the off-label uses you may see advertised for toxin injections — a lip flip, jaw slimming, a brow lift — are not on the labels of Dysport or Botox Cosmetic.

Offices typically price botulinum toxin treatment one of two ways: per unit, or per treatment area.

With per-unit pricing, the price of an area is roughly the number of units times the per-unit price; the label's doses give a floor for that count, and Dysport's labeled frown-line dose is 50 units.

Do not compare a Dysport price per unit with a Botox price per unit.

Each brand's units are its own — the labels state they cannot be compared to or converted into each other — so the same area uses different unit counts on different products.

Compare what matters: the product, the number of units in the quote, and the total.

We could not confirm a current national average price for Dysport.

The ASPS's 2025 statistics report omits fees for minimally invasive procedures, and other national price sources were not retrievable when we checked in October 2026.

What moves the number: the practice and its market, how many units you actually receive, and how the office structures its pricing.

Galderma runs the ASPIRE rewards program; we could not verify its current terms, so ask the office how it applies to your visit.

Start with what the label does and does not say.

The FDA label does not state an onset time in days for frown lines — we looked for one and could not find it.

What the label does say: the clinical effect may last up to four months, and treatment should be given no more often than every three months.

Galderma's consumer site goes beyond the label.

It says results may last up to 5 months, and it cites post-hoc analyses of the company's own trials with a median time to onset of 2 to 3 days based on subjects' self-assessments.

Those are manufacturer figures, not label statements.

The label's own trial data gives the curve.

In study GL-1 of the 50-unit dose, investigators rated frown lines none or mild in 90% of treated subjects at day 14, 88% at day 30, 64% at day 60, 43% at day 90 and 23% at day 120.

These are Dysport-trial figures on Dysport's scale — not a head-to-head comparison with other brands, which ran their own trials.

One 2025 randomized trial — 143 women at a single center, comparing Botox 20 units, Dysport 60 units, Jeuveau 20 units and Xeomin 20 units for the glabella — found Dysport and Jeuveau had the fastest onset at day 3.

It is a single study using a muscle-movement measure rather than standard wrinkle scales, so treat it as one data point, not a ranking.

In Dysport's frown-line trials, adverse reactions of any cause were reported in 48% of 398 treated subjects, against 33% on placebo.

The most common, at 2% or more, included nasopharyngitis (cold-like symptoms), headache, injection site pain or reaction, upper respiratory tract infection, eyelid swelling, eyelid ptosis (a drooping eyelid), sinusitis and nausea.

The label's contraindications include known hypersensitivity to any botulinum toxin product, to cow's milk protein (the product may contain trace amounts) or to any component of the formulation, and infection at the planned injection site.

On antibodies, the label reports that across up to nine treatment cycles in 1,554 glabellar-line subjects, none tested positive for neutralizing antibodies.

For pregnancy and breastfeeding, the labels and the FDA say safety is not established for injectables such as botulinum toxin.

Nothing here is a verdict on your own case; that is a conversation for a licensed provider who knows your history.

Dysport and Botox are different products built for the same job: temporarily reducing the muscle activity that creases skin.

On the label, Botox Cosmetic is approved for four cosmetic areas — frown lines, crow's feet, forehead lines and vertical neck bands — while Dysport's only cosmetic approval is frown lines, in adults under 65.

Their labeled frown-line doses differ by design: 20 units for Botox Cosmetic, 50 units for Dysport, because each product's units are its own; the labels say units cannot be compared or converted, and there is no official conversion ratio.

The conversion ratios you may have read — between 1:2.5 and 1:3 — come from a 2016 review of head-to-head trials in movement disorders, not from any label and not from cosmetic dosing.

On duration, the Botox Cosmetic label gives approximately 3 to 4 months for frown lines and the Dysport label gives up to four months for the same area; each figure belongs to its own product's label and its own trials.

Neither label says Dysport spreads more than Botox — both labels warn of spread of toxin effect, and neither makes a comparison between products.

Which to ask about comes down to the area you want treated and the product your provider is working with — a licensed provider can walk you through which toxin carries the approval for the area you care about.

Who may legally inject Dysport is state law, and it differs by state.

AmSpa, a med spa trade association, frames the baseline: injecting a prescription drug such as botulinum toxin is the practice of medicine, so it must be done by a physician, an independent-practice nurse practitioner, or another licensed professional acting within their scope, under their state's rules.

The CDC's consumer advice is to get botulinum toxin injections only from a licensed, trained provider using product from an authorized source — and it notes that even FDA-approved product, given correctly, is "not risk-free."

Four questions to bring to a consultation: Who will inject me, and what is their license?

Which toxin product will be used?

How many units does the quote include — for frown lines, the Dysport label's dose is 50 units?

And what is the total cost if the treatment needs more?

An office that answers those plainly has answered the questions that matter most.