It's a good news for “cruelty-free” brands venturing in China's market.
Following the promulgation of the Measures for the Administration of the Registration and Recordation of Cosmetics, the Provisions for Management of New Cosmetic Ingredient Registration and Notification Dossiers and the Provisions for Management of Cosmetics Registration and Notification Dossiers (hereinafter referred to as the "Provisions") have also been issued as the first supporting rules of the New Regulations to provide further detailed guidance for implementation.The Provisions recently issued by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) make relevant provisions for the alternatives to animal testing, which has long been a concern in the beauty industry. This means that China will exempt "imported ordinary cosmetic products" from animal testing from May 1.The Provisions stipulate as follows: "In the toxicology and safety evaluation conducted by an alternative to animal testing, an appropriate Integrated Approaches to Testing and Assessment (IATA) shall be selected according to the structural characteristics of ingredients and the specific toxicity endpoints to evaluate the toxicity of new ingredients. Where the applied alternative is not included in the Safety and Technical Standards for Cosmetics of China, it shall be recognized by an international authoritative agency for alternative certification, and be attached with supporting data proving that the alternative can accurately predict the toxicity endpoint. "This marks an official certification the "cruelty-free" cosmeticproducts which have attracted much attention in China's cosmetics industry will be accepted by China soon.
"The fast-developing research in alternatives to animal testing in China speeds up the pace of 'cruelty-free' cosmetics brands entering China," Cheng Shujun, secretary-general of Shanghai Society of Toxicology, said in an interview. "In recent years, the technologies and conditions for toxicology testing of cosmetics in China have increasingly matured, which makes alternatives to animal testing hopeful to replace the traditional toxicology evaluation model. In this way, we can not only ensure the safety of products, but also follow the testing standards of the country of origin, when importing 'cruelty-free' cosmetic products."It is reported that the release of the Provisions for Management of New Cosmetic Ingredient Registration and Notification Dossiers this year is the first time that China agrees to conditionally accept alternatives to animal testing, on the premise that the supporting materials proving the consistency with the alternatives officially recognized are provided or the alternatives applied are recognized by international authoritative agencies for alternative certification.In this regard, some people in the industry believe that the release of this document gives a positive signal for "cruelty-free" cosmetic products to enter the Chinese market. However, the application of alternatives to animal testing specified in the Provisions entails more specific supporting documents, such as the work plan for alternative verification and transfer, guidelines for the verification of alternatives to reconstructed human skin model, etc..It was reported that since June 2014 NMPA no longer required mandatory domestic "non-special-purpose" daily chemicals and cosmetics to complete animal testing, which could be replaced by existing raw material safety test data or non-animal testing permitted by the European Union. However, this exemption did not apply to makeup, sunscreen, deodorant, whitening, hairdyeing, hair growth and hair removal products, and all imported products were still not exempt from animal testing.In July 2018 CFI launched a new project with consulting company Knudsen & Coand Shanghai Fengpu Industrial Park aiming at taking measures to exempt imported cosmetics from animal testing in China. This move has won the support of stakeholders including the Chinese government.At the end of 2019 Bulldog, a British men's skin care brand, begun to sell its products in Watsons stores in Shanghai by virtue of a pilot program of CFI, becoming the first "cruelty-free" beauty brand entering the offline channels of the Chinese Mainland. At that time there seemed to be good news that "cruelty-free" cosmetics would enter China.On January 14th of this year FEBEA (Fédération desenterprises de la beauté) stated that Chinese authorities would allow French ordinary cosmetic products to enter the Chinese market without animal testing. However, this liberal policy is only applicable to the French cosmetics manufacturers with required qualifications.With the promulgation of relevant regulations on alternatives to "animal testing", domestic consumers will find more and more imported beauty and skin care brands in pursuit of "cruelty-free" such as Hourglass, LUSH, Fenty Beauty, Drunk Elephant and The Ordinary in offline stores.
