Comparison

Letybo vs Dysport

Letybo is the newest botulinum toxin in the US, Dysport has been here since 2009. The dose, the track record, and what each one is approved to treat.
Written & medically reviewed by the Dermapedia team
At a Glance

Letybo and Dysport are both botulinum toxin type A, and in the United States both are approved for one cosmetic use: the frown lines between the eyebrows.

The honest summary is that one is new and one is established. Letybo was approved in the US in 2024 and launched here in 2025. Dysport has been available since 2009 and also has approvals for medical conditions.

Their doses are very different numbers for the same job. Letybo uses 20 units for frown lines. Dysport uses 50. That does not mean Dysport is stronger — the two brands measure units differently, and neither number converts into the other.

Letybo
letibotulinumtoxinA-wlbg
Dysport
abobotulinumtoxinA

What it is

Botulinum toxin type A

Made by Hugel, a Korean company. Widely used in Asia before it reached the US.

Botulinum toxin type A

On the US market since 2009, and in Europe for longer.

What it is approved to treat

Frown lines only

No medical approvals in the US.

Frown lines, cervical dystonia, and spasticity

The cosmetic approval is written for adults under 65.

Both
Neither is approved in the US for forehead lines or crow's feet.

The dose for frown lines

20 units, in 5 injections of 4 units
50 units, in 5 injections of 10 units
Both
The unit counts are not comparable. Both labels state their units cannot be converted into another brand's units. Ask what the whole treatment costs.

What is around the toxin

A protein complex, about 900 kDa

The toxin comes wrapped in helper proteins.

A protein complex, varying in size

Also wrapped, in a mix of sizes.

Both
You will often read that Dysport's smaller complex makes it spread further. That explanation does not hold up. The complexes come apart as soon as the vial is mixed, so the size of the wrapping does not decide how far the toxin travels. Spread is set by the dose, the dilution, the volume injected and the injector's technique.

What the trials showed

Three placebo-controlled trials, about 1,270 people

Letybo beat a placebo in all three.

Three placebo-controlled trials

The label reports up to four months of effect.

Both
Neither product has been tested against the other. Everything you read comparing them is built from separate trials.

Who should not have it

Anyone with an infection at the injection site, or a past reaction to a botulinum toxin
The same, plus anyone allergic to cow's milk protein
Both
Beyond these, tell your injector if you have any nerve or muscle condition — myasthenia gravis, Lambert-Eaton syndrome, ALS or a motor neuropathy. Every one of these products warns that people with those conditions can have a much stronger and more dangerous reaction to an ordinary dose. The same goes if you take an aminoglycoside antibiotic or another drug that affects the signal from nerve to muscle.

Who tends to be happy with it

Best for
People treating frown lines who are offered it at a lower price.
The mindset
You are comfortable with a newer arrival in the US.
Best for
People who want the longer US track record.
The mindset
You would rather have the familiar option.
Both
For frown lines alone, most people would not be able to tell the two results apart.

What "new" does and does not mean

Letybo is new in the United States, not new in the world. It has been used in South Korea and other markets for years, and its US approval rested on three trials in more than 1,200 people.

What being new does mean is that there is less long-run US safety reporting to draw on, and fewer injectors have used it hundreds of times. That is a fair thing to weigh, and a fair thing to ask your injector about directly: how many times have you used this one?

Why you cannot line up the two success rates

Letybo's three trials are a useful lesson in reading these numbers.

The same product, at the same dose, produced success rates ranging from 47% to 65% across the three trials. Nothing about the drug changed, and the three trials used an identical design and an identical way of scoring success. What differed was who took part, where, and how big each trial was — enough on its own to move the number eighteen points.

That is the size of the gap you can get from trial design alone — and it is bigger than most of the differences people argue about between brands. So when a chart shows one toxin at 55% and another at 65%, and those numbers came from different studies, the chart is not telling you which one works better.

Worth asking before you book

  • What does the whole treatment cost? Not the price per unit.
  • How many times have you used this brand?
  • How many units, and where exactly?
  • What happens if one side looks higher at two weeks?

Get emergency help now if

  • You have trouble swallowing, speaking, or breathing
  • You feel weakness spreading to muscles you did not have treated

Go to an emergency department or call 911. Do not wait for a call back. These are rare, but they are the symptoms named in the FDA boxed warning that every botulinum toxin product carries, deaths have been reported, and they can begin hours or even weeks after treatment.

Call your injector if

  • One eyelid or eyebrow starts to droop, or your vision changes
  • One side sits noticeably higher than the other at two weeks

If a vision change is sudden or severe, seek urgent care rather than waiting.

Questions people ask+
Is Letybo as good as Dysport?For frown lines, both work better than a placebo in their own trials, and most people would not be able to tell the results apart. The two have never been tested against each other, so nobody can rank them.
Why does Letybo use 20 units and Dysport 50?Because a unit is not a fixed amount. Each brand measures potency with its own laboratory method, and both labels say their units cannot be converted into any other brand's. The unit count tells you nothing about strength.
Is Letybo cheaper?It entered the US market positioned as a lower-cost option, but what you pay depends on the clinic. Ask for the price of the whole treatment rather than the price per unit — that is the only figure you can compare across brands.
Is Letybo safe?It carries the same FDA boxed warning as every botulinum toxin product, about the toxin spreading beyond the injection site. Its approval was based on three trials in about 1,270 people. It has less long-term US use behind it than Dysport simply because it arrived later.
Can Letybo treat forehead lines?Not on-label. In the US it is approved only for frown lines. The same is true of Dysport.
Which one works faster?Neither label states a time to onset for these products, so there is no reliable published number to compare. In practice, botulinum toxin generally starts to show within a few days and settles over two weeks.