Cosmetic products: an overview of International Regulatory Systems

Marco Piacentini, Cosmetic Testing Business Unit Manager, Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing Italy, MarcoPiacentini@eurofins.com, Dorota Brodzik, Business Development Manager, Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing Italy, DorotaBrodzik@Eurofins.com

There has been significant growth in the global cosmetics trade in recent years, crossing geographical and generational borders, boosting new trends and new product demand. Novel market segments such as green-cosmetics, natural-cosmetics, and high-tech cosmetics are pushing the limits of Research & Development efforts and product launches. In chasing after efficacy and performance, R&D departments are blurring the border between the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries as evidenced by new marketing expressions such as cosmeceutical, functional cosmetics and dermal-cosmetics.

Consumers’ exposure to cosmetic products is generally higher than to pharmaceutical products, and cosmetovigilance is still on its growing curve. Accordingly, in an attempt to rule the growing cosmetics market, regional agencies have been working on a regulatory system to define rules and laws, enabling producers and importers to develop and trade safe products. In turn, government agencies are overseeing what is on the market. Overall, the main regulatory frameworks are in Europe, Japan, US, Canada, China, Brazil, Australia & New Zealand and the Middle East.

Some areas, for example the USA, use a voluntary registration system approach while others, mainly European and Japanese regulatory systems, require mandatory product filings prior to product marketing. The rules used to distinguish between pharmaceutical and cosmetics products may be significantly different in different countries.

To support global clients, Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing has structured a fully integrated programme to design and execute the set of tests required to develop, produce and launch cosmetic products complying with global regulatory systems through a full service package, including integrated regulatory assessment, dossier editing and preparation, safety and performance testing and clinical centres for performance testing partnering with a network of medical specialists. Among our experts, we have members of the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) at the European Commission and the Japanese Cosmetic Centre, allowing first-hand updates on novel advancements in the field of cosmetic regulations.

For more information, visit: www.eurofins.com/consumerproduct- testing/industries/cosmetics/