# Bausch Health

Six reviewed prescriptions now include CABTREO alongside four retinoid products and fluorouracil. Their labels illustrate why a finished formulation, its indication and its handling instructions need to be assessed together.

- **Canonical:** https://www.30plusskin.care/brands/bausch-health
- **Site:** 30+/SKIN — Skincare, published as a spec sheet.
- **Issue:** ISSUE NO. 13 / REV. 2026.10
- **Standing terms:** INDEPENDENT · AFFILIATE-FUNDED · NOT MEDICAL ADVICE

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## The operation

- **Category:** MANUFACTURED PRESCRIPTION DERMATOLOGY · FDA APPROVED
- **Model:** New Drug Applications, manufactured products, retail pharmacy dispensing on a prescriber's script. No subscription, no consultation funnel, no direct sales.
- **Products assessed:** 6
- **Mean score:** 77/100
- **Mean disclosure score:** 88/100
- **Pricing:** See each offer and billing period in the product records
- **Brand site:** https://www.bauschhealth.com
- **TRADING NAMES:** BAUSCH HEALTH · ORTHO DERMATOLOGICS
- **MODEL:** NDA → MANUFACTURE → RETAIL PHARMACY
- **RANGE ASSESSED:** 6 PRODUCTS
- **REGULATORY STATUS:** ALL FDA APPROVED
- **REVIEWED RANGE:** RETINOIDS · ACNE COMBINATION · FLUOROURACIL
- **VEHICLES:** EMOLLIENT CREAM · LOTION · POLYMERIC EMULSION · MICROSPHERE GEL
- **FORMULA DISCLOSURE:** FULL — CONCENTRATION, FILL WEIGHT AND EXCIPIENTS
- **PRICE RANGE ASSESSED:** ~$123 TO ~$572

## Verdict

This is the reference class. Bausch Health's dermatology portfolio — trading in places as Ortho Dermatologics — is where three of the four topical retinoids in this register come from, alongside a product with a specific fine-wrinkle indication. Every one of them went through a New Drug Application, which means the concentration, the fill weight, the excipient list, the trial design, the endpoint, the vehicle arm and the failures are all public documents.

Read across the four and a thesis emerges that no compounded product page in this register could support. Renova puts tretinoin at 0.02% in an emollient cream for indefinite nightly use on ageing skin. Altreno puts it at 0.05% in a lotion carrying sodium hyaluronate and soluble collagen, and reports dryness in 4% of users. Retin-A Micro puts it inside a porous crosspolymer that meters it out over hours, and measures how much reaches the bloodstream. Arazlo swaps the molecule for tazarotene and gets the largest effect in the register at the worst price. Four vehicles, four trade-offs, all measured.

The disclosure is the reason these score as they do rather than because the drugs are remarkable. Renova prints, in capitals, that it does not reverse photoageing — and publishes a subgroup in Fitzpatrick IV–VI skin where the vehicle outperformed the drug. Retin-A Micro states that three of its four marketed strengths have no pharmacokinetic study, and prints an in vitro genotoxicity signal on one of its own excipients. These are not the disclosures of a company trying to sell you something. They are the disclosures of a company that had to file a dossier.

The weakness is price and scope. Arazlo at around $572 for 45 g has no head-to-head data against the tretinoin sitting next to it at $123. Renova at roughly $319 is the same molecule as a $38 generic, differentiated by a vehicle that has never been compared with the standard one. And three of the four are indicated for acne, so the readers of this site mostly encounter them off-label — which is reasonable, common, and worth naming rather than assuming.

## Patterns in the reviewed range

### 07 — A fixed acne combination adds an antibiotic and a dispensing limit

CABTREO adds clindamycin, adapalene and benzoyl peroxide in a defined gel. The review separates its vehicle-controlled evidence from comparisons with other prescriptions and records the ten-week dispensing expiration. A formula with published strengths still needs a clinical review and usable-time calculation.

### 01 — The vehicle is where the development money went

A hyaluronate-and-collagen lotion, a polymeric emulsion lotion, an emollient oil-in-water cream and a methyl methacrylate crosspolymer microsphere. In every case the molecule is decades old and the innovation is delivery. Altreno's reward is application-site dryness in 4% of users against under 1% on vehicle — a full-strength retinoid that most people can keep using.

### 02 — The failures are printed alongside the successes

Renova publishes that only two of five trials demonstrated efficacy for fine wrinkling, that no two demonstrated it for coarse wrinkling, mottled hyperpigmentation, roughness or laxity, and that in darkly pigmented subjects vehicle beat drug 43% to 29%. Retin-A Micro publishes a trial arm where inflammatory lesions fell 29% against 24% on vehicle. Nothing forces a company to make those numbers prominent.

### 03 — Every comparator is vehicle, never another drug

Across all four products and eleven trials, not one comparison is against an active alternative. Arazlo's registration programme never tested it against tretinoin; Altreno's never tested it against generic tretinoin cream; Renova's never tested 0.02% against the older 0.05%, and the label says so. So the question a prescriber actually faces — which of these, and is the expensive one worth it — has no answer in any of the dossiers.

### 04 — A strength series is not the same as an evidenced ladder

Retin-A Micro markets four concentrations. Efficacy trials exist for two of them. Pharmacokinetic studies exist for one. The label states this plainly, which is to its credit, but a patient stepped down to 0.06% is on a rung with no data of its own.

### 05 — One label from before any of this was required

Efudex carries no clinical studies section — no success rate, no comparator, no sample size — because it predates the framework that requires one. It is exemplary about who must not take it and silent about what taking it achieves, which is the mirror image of Renova, and a useful reminder that disclosure is not one thing.

### 06 — The prices span a factor of fifteen for the same job

Altreno at about $123 for 45 g, Retin-A Micro at about $172 for 50 g, Renova at about $319 for 40 g, Arazlo at about $572 for 45 g. All four treat the same tissue by the same receptor family. Only Altreno is priced anywhere near the generic alternative, and the differences track brand position rather than any measured advantage.

## Credit where it is due

- Every concentration is printed on the carton, in per cent and in milligrams per gram.
- Every fill weight and pack size is published, so cost per gram is computable across the whole range.
- Complete excipient lists on all four products.
- Vehicle arms published for every trial, including the ones where the vehicle did well.
- Renova states in its own indication that it does not reverse photoageing or restore younger skin.
- Renova publishes a subgroup in which its own product underperformed vehicle.
- Retin-A Micro measures and publishes systemic bioavailability at 0.82% and 1.41%.
- Retin-A Micro states which of its strengths have no pharmacokinetic data.
- Arazlo publishes confidence intervals on every treatment difference and its own discontinuation rate.
- Arazlo states its pregnancy contraindication in the highlights, not in a subsection.
- No subscriptions anywhere. A prescription and a tube.

## Disclosure matrix

| Product | CONC. ON PAGE | CONC. FINDABLE | CONTRA-INDICATIONS | SIZE | SIDE EFFECTS |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Bausch Health CABTREO Gel | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Bausch Health Renova | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Bausch Health Altreno | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Bausch Health Arazlo | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Bausch Health Retin-A Micro | yes | yes | yes | yes | partial |
| Bausch Health Efudex | yes | yes | yes | yes | partial |

## Reviews

| No. | Product | Stance | Score | Price | Document |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| R-74 | CABTREO Gel | CONDITIONAL | 95/100 | Pharmacy quote | /reviews/cabtreo-acne-gel-review |
| R-36 | Altreno — Tretinoin lotion 0.05% | RECOMMENDED | 79/100 | $123 | /reviews/altreno-tretinoin-lotion-review |
| R-37 | Arazlo — Tazarotene lotion 0.045% | CONDITIONAL | 77/100 | $572 | /reviews/arazlo-tazarotene-lotion-review |
| R-38 | Retin-A Micro — Tretinoin gel microsphere 0.04% / 0.06% / 0.08% / 0.1% | CONDITIONAL | 76/100 | $172 | /reviews/retin-a-micro-gel-review |
| R-34 | Renova — Tretinoin emollient cream 0.02% | CONDITIONAL | 72/100 | $319 | /reviews/renova-tretinoin-cream-002-review |
| R-56 | Efudex — Fluorouracil cream 5% / solution 2% and 5% | CONDITIONAL | 61/100 | $36 | /reviews/efudex-fluorouracil-review |

## Sources

- [DailyMed — CABTREO prescribing information](https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=9468da0f-9978-4c58-8135-0274c3415084) — Label revised March 2025: exact strengths, acne indication, two vehicle-controlled trials, contraindications and ten-week dispensing expiration. Checked 13 September 2026.

## Related records

- [R-74 Bausch Health CABTREO Gel](/reviews/cabtreo-acne-gel-review)
- [L-17 Adult acne prescription combinations: what the ingredients change](/ledger/adult-acne-prescription-combinations)
- [L-19 Prescription skincare expiry and storage: compare usable treatment time](/ledger/prescription-skincare-expiry-storage)

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## Elsewhere in the register

- [Review register](/reviews)
- [Active monographs](/actives)
- [Brand register](/brands)
- [Evidence register](/evidence)
- [The ledger](/ledger)
- [How we test](/how-we-test)
- [Agent guide](/llms.txt)
- [Sitemap](/sitemap.xml)

_SOURCE-BASED ASSESSMENTS. PUBLISHER PREFERENCES ARE IDENTIFIED SEPARATELY._