Aug. 25–Area dermatologists are raising concerns about a prescription-strength skin cream that consumers have been able to purchase over the counter at least one West Palm Beach beauty supply store.
Fabulous Beauty Supply, in the plaza at the corner of Okeechobee Boulevard and Military Trail, has been selling a skin cream containing clobetasol propionate, a high-potency steroid that can thin and lighten the skin and cause health problems in children.
The store is selling two kinds of Lemonvate cream that contain 0.05 percent of the steroid. The creams’ packages indicate they are for skin diseases like psoriasis and eczema. But if used improperly, it can cause whitening of the skin, the growth of extra blood vessels and permanent thinning of the skin.
“That product should not be sold without a prescription,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Laura Alvey said, adding that she had received no other media calls about the store or the steroid.
Dr. Jean Malecki, director of the county health department, said her agency had received a complaint about the creams and had passed it on to the FDA.
Local dermatologists say the steroid should not be used for more than a 2-3 weeks at a time, and always under the supervision of a doctor.
Dr. Kenneth Beer, a West Palm Beach dermatologist, said the steroid can cause children’s bodies to shut off hormone production, which can lead to immune suppression, stunted growth and infections. “From time to time what happens is a child… can get enough absorbed it can affect their hormones. It can make little kids really, really sick,” he said, adding that none of his patients have come in with the cream.
But Dr. Steven Rosenberg, a West Palm Beach dermatologist, learned last week that the steroid was being sold over the counter when one of his patients brought it into his office. She had used it on her face for about a year to treat acne.
Rosenberg said he thinks the cream actually made the woman’s acne worse, and it also left blotchy patches of discoloration on her skin. Rosenberg said she told him she bought the cream at Fabulous Beauty Supply.
The store’s owner, Nazar Osman, said Tuesday he had no idea the creams were prescription strength. He said the store has carried the creams since it opened three years ago, but he would not name the wholesaler he purchased the creams from.
“Wholesalers wouldn’t carry anything that would harm anybody. They only sell products that are FDA-approved. We deal with big people,” he said. Osman said he plans to stop selling the creams, which he said are not very popular.
On Monday, a Palm Beach Post reporter was able to buy two 30 milligram tubes of the cream at Fabulous Beauty Supply for $2.99 each. At Drugstore.com a 30 milligram tube of cream containing the steroid costs $15.53.
Fabulous Beauty Supply was selling two kinds of creams containing the steroid, one made in Milan, Italy, and the other made in the Grisons region of Switzerland. Both are labeled as Lemonvate Cream and both list clobetasol propionate as an ingredient on their packages.
Rosenberg said anyone using the cream without a prescription should talk to a dermatologist who might recommend they gradually wean off it.
Alvey said the FDA last had a problem with over-the-counter sales of clobetasol propionate in 1997, when a Madrid-based manufacturer was making sprays, shampoos and creams for dandruff, psoriasis and other skin disorders. It claimed that the active ingredient was zinc pyrithione, an over-the-counter treatment for some kinds of dandruff. But an FDA analysis found that the products, called Skin-Cap, actually contained clobetasol propionate.
“We had patients coming in saying, ‘I don’t need to see a dermatologist. I’m using this stuff because it’s natural and it helps me,’ ” Beer said. “They were doping it with very strong steroids.”
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