Corporate types are clamoring for a new kind of plastic surgery using dead people's fat

• A pricey new product, alloClae, which sources fat from dead people, has recently hit the market.
• Getting the product injected doesn't require any downtime, making it popular with corporate types.
• Plastic surgeons said there are monthslong waitlists for alloClae, as its manufacturer races to keep up.

In his plush Upper East Side office earlier this year, Dr. Sachin Shridharani was at work on a patient's breasts: applying a local anesthesia, making an incision, ensuring the final result sat just right.

Through it all, his patient — an executive — had her AirPods in. She was on a conference call with a client, Shridharani told Business Insider. Less than two hours after she walked in, she popped up, checked out her new physique, and dashed off to her office.

As recently as a year ago, a typical boob job would have involved general anesthesia and a multiday recovery.

But Shridharani was using alloClae, a new product from manufacturer Tiger Aesthetics that's becoming increasingly popular with patients eager to look their best in the boardroom without undergoing general anesthesia or taking days off for recovery.

Rather than relying on an implant or a patient's own body fat to add volume to hips or augment breasts, alloClae — which can cost as much as $100,000 per procedure — uses donor fat from a cadaver as a first-of-its-kind body filler.

"People are paying for the convenience," Shridharani, who has done more than 50 procedures with alloClae and was part of its trial, said. "It's about not having the downtime, not needing more aggressive procedures, not having an anesthetic."

Business Insider spoke to a half dozen plastic surgeons, largely based in New York and California, who, together, have completed around 75 procedures with alloClae since it became available earlier this year. They described wealthy executives and corporate types clamoring for the product, booking 6 a.m. visits so they could make it to work by 7, and using the filler to look better in their suits — work, not swim, that is. Demand for alloClae has outpaced supply, resulting in a shortage and backlog of appointments.

While many of their alloClae patients are high-ranking professionals looking for a quick zhuzh, there are several other reasons people opt for the product. Some lack sufficient body fat for a typical transfer collected through liposuction. Others don't want the loose skin that can be associated with lipo. Some simply don't want to deal with anesthesia.

Take Gretchen Seal, the 57-year-old CFO at global telecommunications company Convo Relay, who got alloClae in September to smooth out the edge of a breast implant and used extra product to fill out hip dips. The numbing took longer than the procedure itself, which clocked in under 40 minutes, she said.

"I got in my car, and I drove straight home from the procedure, and I went to work," Seal said.

Even with the hip enhancement, she spent the afternoon sitting comfortably at her desk.

The rise in GLP-1s has contributed to the alloClae fervor. It's not only Ozempic face — it's deflated Ozempic boobs, hips, butt.

Shridharani has male patients who have lost weight on the likes of Ozempic, only to find they don't quite fill out their suits the way they used to.

"In their own words, 'I've got no ass,'" he said. "'My trousers look like they're falling off.'"

In a workforce that prioritizes appearances — studies have shown more attractive people get paid more — alloClae is becoming the C-suite's secret weapon.

From a corpse to your cups

alloClae is part of a larger boom in less-invasive cosmetic procedures.

The annual number of minimally invasive procedures, from Botox to lip fillers, is growing faster than surgical cosmetic procedures, reaching over 28 million last year, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

"It was all about the lunchtime Botox procedure," Caroline Van Hove, the president of Tiger Aesthetics, said. "That is still the appeal of medically aesthetic products that are minimally invasive, meaning you have little downtime."

Tiger Aesthetics, which also provides implants and traditional fillers, began offering alloClae to a select group of doctors in the fall of 2024, followed by a soft rollout to a few hundred surgeons this past spring, and a full launch that's planned early next year, Van Hove said. The company didn't disclose how many patients have used the product.

While alloClae comes from a cadaver, the product is less macabre than you may think, and even patients who may be turned off by the whole dead body thing typically come around to it, Dr. Bob Basu, the president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, said.

When individuals donate their bodies for science, such as organ donations, tissue banks often collect abdominal fat cells. Tiger Aesthetics purchases that fat, screens it for diseases, purifies it, and processes it. By the end, it looks like clumpy butter in a syringe.

The process means Tiger Aesthetics is "at the mercy of donated tissue," Van Hove said. The company aims to increase its intake of donor fat as it expands its manufacturing facilities and is exploring ways to improve tissue yields, she said.

"As of the beginning of 2026, we'll be producing a ton more alloClae so that we can service the real demand that's out there," Van Hove said.

alloClae is regulated by the FDA. Van Hove said the approval process differs from that of implants or medications like Botox, as it's sold under a different designation.

While other products that use donor fat exist, alloClae is unique in its composition and the volume in which it is administered. Most patients use between 50 and 100 CCs, Van Hove said, though doctors that Business Insider spoke with have used as much as 550 CCs on a patient. By comparison, Renuva, a donor fat product made by MTF Biologics, is typically dispensed in much smaller quantities and used on the face. (alloClae is not recommended for the face.)

Convenience at a cost

alloClae's convenience comes at a cost, depending on how much donor fat you want.

Doctors said the procedures, including the doctor's fees and the price of the alloClae itself, can cost a customer between $10,000 and $100,000. If a patient gets 100 or 200 CCs — enough for a slight contour of the hip or filling out of the breast — the cost is pretty much in line with the cost of a typical fat transfer, Shridharani said. More than that, the steep cost of alloClae quickly adds up.

Where a typical breast augmentation with an implant at an upscale office like Shridharani's would start at $15,000, a minor breast adjustment using alloClae starts at $12,000 and could exceed $30,000 depending on the desired volume.

"The thing that shocks me a little bit is just how expensive the product is, but still the willingness of patients to pay for it," said San Francisco-based plastic surgeon Dr. David Sieber, who hasn't yet injected alloClae but has patients waiting for the product.

That willingness comes even without long-term, proven results.

So far, the doctors who spoke with Business Insider have said the initial results are promising, but as Basu said, there's been no three- or five-year follow-up yet.

The procedures he has done with alloClae are all "subtle refinements," he said. "It is not go big or go home."

'C-level surgery'

Douglas Steinbrech, who has medical practices for men in New York City, Beverly Hills, and Chicago, has a term he uses at the office: "C-level surgery." C as in C-suite — and among that crowd, alloClae has been graded A+.

"The CEOs, COOs, CCOs that don't want to be away from the boardroom," Steinbrech told Business Insider. He has primarily had men get alloClae put in their shoulders and chests.

"They have to go to a lot of meetings that just pop up, and they cannot control when they're going to happen. They can't just clear their schedule to recover for a surgery," he added.

Often, patients return to the office the same day as their procedure, or get the injection in the afternoon and go back the next morning.

For Seal, the CFO, liposuction was never a viable option because she doesn't have enough fat to transfer. When she learned that a breast lift surgery to fix her implant would necessitate weeks without getting on a plane to avoid blood clots, she knew it would never work with her job.

"My schedule changes so much," she said. "I hop on planes to Silicon Valley, I go to New York, Washington."

That's when her plastic surgeon suggested alloClae. If she could bear the monthlong wait, she could get 100 CCs of the product — and none of the downtime.

"It worked beautifully," she said. "I feel much more confident."

Word of alloClae is spreading.

Doctors say patients now come in asking for it by name — though it can be hard to find. Van Hove said the product is sold out until the end of January.

But good things come to those who wait. Dr. Adam Schaffner, who has had dozens of patients express interest in alloClae, was celebrating on the day he spoke to Business Insider — 400 CCs of the product had just been delivered to his New York City office.