Dysport and Jeuveau are both botulinum toxin type A approved for frown lines. Dysport uses 50 units and has medical approvals; Jeuveau uses 20 units and is cosmetic only. Compare onset, duration, safety, and cost.
Dysport and Jeuveau are both FDA-approved botulinum toxin type A injections for frown lines. Dysport is dosed at 50 units per glabella and also treats medical conditions; Jeuveau uses 20 units and is cosmetic only. Onset, duration, and safety are broadly similar, so your injector matters more than the brand.
*FDA status: Dysport (abobotulinumtoxinA) and Jeuveau (prabotulinumtoxinA-xvfs) are both FDA-approved for the temporary improvement of moderate to severe glabellar (frown) lines in adults. Dysport is additionally FDA-approved for cervical dystonia and for spasticity in patients 2 years and older; Jeuveau has no approved medical uses and is cosmetic only. Forehead lines, crow's feet, and every other facial area are off-label for both products. Unit counts are not interchangeable between brands. This is educational content, not medical advice.*
If you are choosing between them, the practical question is not which molecule is stronger. Both are purified botulinum toxin type A, both work by blocking the nerve signal that tells a muscle to contract, and both are dosed in brand-specific units that cannot be converted one to one. What differs is the amount of product used per treatment, the excipients in the vial, the range of conditions each is approved to treat, and how much published comparative data sits behind each. This guide walks through those differences, what they mean in a real treatment room, how the pricing actually works, and how to judge whether a provider is recommending a product for clinical reasons or commercial ones.
Dysport launched in the United States in 2009 and has a long clinical track record in both aesthetics and neurology. Jeuveau arrived in February 2019 as the first botulinum toxin developed and marketed purely for cosmetic use, which is where its nickname Newtox comes from. Both are approved for the same single aesthetic indication: moderate to severe glabellar lines, the vertical frown lines between the brows. Neither is approved for the forehead, the crow's feet, or any of the other areas injectors routinely treat, so much of what happens in a typical appointment is off-label for either product. The table below sets the two side by side on the attributes that actually change your experience: what is in the vial, how many units a standard frown line treatment uses, how quickly movement softens, how long the effect holds, and what each product is legally approved to do.
| Attribute | Dysport | Jeuveau |
|---|---|---|
| Active ingredient | abobotulinumtoxinA | prabotulinumtoxinA-xvfs |
| Maker | Ipsen, US aesthetic distribution by Galderma | Evolus, manufactured by Daewoong |
| First US approval | April 2009 | February 2019 |
| FDA aesthetic indication | Glabellar lines, adults under 65 | Glabellar lines, adults |
| FDA medical indications | Cervical dystonia | |
| spasticity age 2 and older | None, cosmetic only | |
| Label glabellar dose | 50 units total, 5 sites of 10 units | 20 units total, 5 sites of 4 units |
| Vial sizes | 300 or 500 units | 100 units |
| Other ingredients | Human serum albumin, lactose, may contain trace cow's milk protein | Human serum albumin, sodium chloride |
| Typical onset | About 2 to 4 days | About 2 to 4 days |
| Typical duration | About 3 to 4 months | About 3 to 4 months |
| Minimum retreatment interval | 3 months | 3 months |
| Boxed warning | Yes, distant spread of toxin effect | Yes, distant spread of toxin effect |
Both products are the same class of drug: purified botulinum toxin type A, delivered by intramuscular injection with a very fine needle. The toxin blocks acetylcholine release at the neuromuscular junction, so the treated muscle receives a weaker signal to contract. Because the lines between the brows are folds created by repeated muscle movement, quieting the corrugator and procerus muscles lets the overlying skin stop creasing and gradually smooth out.
The patient experience is nearly identical. A frown line treatment is five small injections, takes a few minutes, and needs no anesthetic beyond optional ice or topical numbing cream. There is no downtime, though injectors commonly ask you to stay upright for a few hours and to avoid heavy exercise, facial massage, and lying flat that evening. Both labels state that retreatment should be given no more frequently than every three months.
Both carry the same FDA boxed warning about distant spread of toxin effect. Both are prescription-only. Both are supplied as a powder that must be reconstituted with sterile saline and used within a short window. Both list human serum albumin as a stabilizer. Both labels also state plainly that their units are specific to that product and its assay and cannot be converted into the units of any other botulinum toxin. Results are temporary for both, and both fade gradually rather than all at once, so continuous smoothing means a maintenance rhythm of roughly three to four treatments a year.
The clearest difference is dosing scale. The Dysport label directs 50 units for glabellar lines, given as five injections of 10 units. The Jeuveau label directs 20 units, given as five injections of 4 units. That is not a strength difference. Each brand defines its own unit through its own potency assay, and the conversion factor between onabotulinumtoxinA and abobotulinumtoxinA is usually cited at around 1 to 3, with a published range of roughly 1 to 2.5 through 1 to 4 depending on the study. Jeuveau is dosed close to one to one with Botox. So a 50 unit Dysport treatment and a 20 unit Jeuveau treatment are aiming at broadly the same clinical effect.
The vials differ too. Dysport is supplied in 300 and 500 unit vials and contains lactose alongside human serum albumin, and the label notes it may contain trace amounts of cow's milk protein. Known hypersensitivity to cow's milk protein is a listed contraindication for Dysport, which matters for a small number of patients. Jeuveau comes in a 100 unit vial with human serum albumin and sodium chloride and carries no milk protein warning.
Spread is where marketing and evidence part company. Dysport is widely described as diffusing more widely, and many injectors plan their injection points on that assumption. A 2024 review of botulinum toxin diffusion concluded that the main type A formulations do not in fact show inherently different diffusion profiles, and that the practical drivers of spread are the dose injected, the dilution used, and the injection volume. In other words, spread is largely a technique variable your injector controls rather than a fixed property of the brand, so a claim that one product is safer near the eyelid should be treated with skepticism.
Both products typically begin to soften movement within two to four days, with the full effect visible around ten to fourteen days. Some patients report noticing Dysport slightly sooner, and that impression is common enough to be worth mentioning, but it is not a reliable or clinically meaningful gap for most people. Duration for both is usually described as three to four months and sometimes longer, which matches how dermatology bodies characterize botulinum toxin generally. Individual results vary with dose, muscle bulk, metabolism, activity level, and how long you have been treating.
The honest limitation is this: there is no published head to head randomized trial of Dysport against Jeuveau. Every comparison you read, including this one, is indirect, built from each product's own trials against placebo or against Botox. Jeuveau's development program included an open-label long-term safety study of 922 subjects receiving repeat 20 unit glabellar treatments, which is a reasonable base for judging safety but says nothing about how it performs against Dysport. A separate 2024 phase II trial compared prabotulinumtoxinA against onabotulinumtoxinA, not against Dysport, and reported a median duration of 183 days for a 40 unit prabotulinumtoxinA dose versus 148 days for 20 units of onabotulinumtoxinA, with comparable safety.
Read that last figure carefully. Forty units is double the approved Jeuveau glabellar dose, so it describes off-label dosing in a small trial and is not a claim that standard Jeuveau lasts six months. Anyone telling you that one of these two definitively outlasts the other is going beyond the published evidence.
Dysport carries three FDA approvals: cervical dystonia in adults, spasticity in patients two years and older, and the temporary improvement of moderate to severe glabellar lines in adults under 65. Jeuveau carries one: moderate to severe glabellar lines in adults. That is a genuine difference in regulatory footprint, and it is why Dysport has years of neurology safety data behind it at doses far higher than any cosmetic patient receives. It does not, by itself, make Dysport a better wrinkle treatment.
Both are used off-label across the rest of the face, including horizontal forehead lines, crow's feet, bunny lines, chin dimpling, a lip flip, masseter slimming, and platysmal neck bands. Off-label does not mean illegal or improper. It is legal, routine, and often supported by substantial published experience. It does mean the FDA has not reviewed evidence for that specific use, and your consent conversation should say so plainly rather than glossing over it.
The question people ask most about Jeuveau is why it was banned. In December 2020 the US International Trade Commission issued a 21 month limited exclusion order against Jeuveau. That case was a trade secret and manufacturing process dispute brought by Medytox and Allergan under Section 337 of the Tariff Act, not a safety action. The FDA did not withdraw approval and no product recall was involved. The order was rescinded when the parties settled in February 2021, and Jeuveau has been available in the United States since. It is a corporate litigation story, not a patient safety story, and it should not weigh on your decision.
For a straightforward glabellar treatment in a healthy adult, either product is a reasonable choice, and most people would not be able to tell which one they received. Dysport tends to be the more logical pick when you are treating large areas and want fewer injection points, when you have already had a good result with it, or when you value a molecule with a long therapeutic track record. Because Dysport comes in 300 and 500 unit vials, higher volume clinics often keep it stocked and can price larger multi-area treatments competitively.
Jeuveau tends to suit patients treating a small number of cosmetic areas, patients who want a product dosed close to Botox units so switching is simple to reason about, and patients drawn to its value positioning. Its 100 unit vial suits smaller practices and single area appointments without waste.
Because Botox is the reference point most people arrive with, it is worth naming why patients say they prefer one over another. Those who favor Dysport usually cite a perceived faster start and a softer, more spread out result across broad areas like the forehead. Those who favor Botox cite predictability, the longest safety record of any cosmetic toxin, and a preference for tightly localized placement. Neither preference is settled by the published evidence, and both are reported subjectively rather than measured in a head to head trial, so treat them as personal experience rather than a ranking.
Dysport should be avoided if you have a known allergy to cow's milk protein, since the label lists that as a contraindication. Neither product is appropriate if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have an infection at the proposed injection site, have a known hypersensitivity to any botulinum toxin product, or have a neuromuscular disorder such as myasthenia gravis, Lambert Eaton syndrome, or ALS without specialist input. Tell your injector about aminoglycoside antibiotics and muscle relaxants, which can potentiate the effect of either product.
The safety profiles are broadly similar because the underlying molecule is the same. The most common effects are local and short lived: injection site redness, swelling, tenderness, or bruising, plus headache in the first day or two. A feeling of heaviness in the brow is common early on and usually settles as the dose distributes.
The complication patients care about most is eyelid or brow ptosis, a temporary droop caused by product reaching the levator or frontalis muscle. It is uncommon, it is dose and technique dependent, and it resolves as the toxin wears off over weeks. Prescription apraclonidine eye drops can partially lift a drooping lid in the meantime. Asymmetry, an overly flat or heavy brow, and a dropped smile from misplaced product in the lower face are all reversible with time but not reversible on demand. That is the single most important thing to understand before treatment: there is no antidote, only patience.
Both labels carry the FDA boxed warning for distant spread of toxin effect: swallowing or breathing difficulty, generalized muscle weakness, blurred vision, or loss of bladder control occurring hours to weeks after injection. These events have been reported mainly at therapeutic doses far above cosmetic dosing, and particularly in children treated for spasticity, but the warning applies to cosmetic use as well. Seek urgent medical care if any of those symptoms appear. In Jeuveau's trials the safety profile was comparable to onabotulinumtoxinA, and the 2024 duration study reported no serious adverse events.
Prices vary substantially by city, clinic overhead, injector credentials, and how many areas you treat, so treat any figure you find online as a rough range rather than a quote, and assume published numbers date quickly. The structural point is simple. Dysport's advertised price per unit is typically a fraction of Jeuveau's, because a Dysport glabellar treatment uses 50 units where Jeuveau uses 20. Multiply it out and the total for the same treated area often lands in a similar band. A clinic quoting per unit is not necessarily misleading you, but comparing two brands on per unit price alone is arithmetic that produces the wrong answer.
Always ask for the total price for the areas you want treated, and ask how many units the injector expects to use, because that number is what you are actually buying. Watch for two patterns. Deep per unit discounting can accompany over-dilution or under-dosing, which shortens your result and costs more across a year. Manufacturer loyalty programs tie the two brands to different reward schemes, which is a real saving for regular patients but should not be the deciding clinical factor.
The evidence in this guide points to one conclusion. Between two well matched botulinum toxin type A products, the injector is the variable that determines your result. Choose a licensed injector, whether a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or registered nurse working under appropriate medical supervision, who assesses your muscle pattern at rest and in motion, states plainly which areas are off-label, documents units and injection points so a good result can be reproduced, and has a written plan for managing a complication. Ask how many of these treatments they perform each month, and ask to see their own before and after photographs rather than manufacturer stock images.
Neither reliably outlasts the other. Both are usually described as lasting three to four months, and no published head to head trial compares them directly. Your dose, muscle strength, metabolism, and injector technique influence duration far more than the brand does. If one gave you a longer result personally, that is a reasonable reason to stay with it.
It was not banned for safety. In December 2020 the US International Trade Commission issued a 21 month import ban over a trade secret and manufacturing process dispute brought by Medytox and Allergan. The FDA never withdrew approval and there was no recall. The order was rescinded after a February 2021 settlement, and Jeuveau remains available.
Twenty units is the labeled Jeuveau dose for frown lines, so that figure covers one area, not a full face. Prices vary widely by region, clinic, and injector experience. Ask for the total cost of the areas you want treated rather than relying on a per unit figure quoted online, which is rarely comparable between brands.
Yes. Switching between botulinum toxin brands is common and needs no washout beyond the normal three month minimum interval. Your injector will re-dose rather than match units one to one, because 50 Dysport units and 20 Jeuveau units target a similar effect. Tell them what you liked or disliked about your previous result.
Jeuveau was studied in a program of over 900 subjects, with side effects comparable to other type A toxins: bruising, headache, brow heaviness, and occasional temporary eyelid droop. Like every botulinum toxin it carries an FDA boxed warning for distant spread of toxin effect. Safety depends heavily on injector training, dosing, and placement.