Cosmetic firms under US administration’s radar for ad claims

It will now be the turn of Cosmetics, which were until now passed over as precedence was given to drugs, food and nutritional supplements, to be under the radar of regulators and other watchdogs in the US.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Congress and the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) will now focus on cosmetic ingredients and their claims, according to Advertising Age.

Recently, L’Oreal was pulled up by NAD for its claims that its Lancome cream was capable of refilling wrinkles in an hour.

The FDA had also justified Obama administration’s proposal to earmark around $19m in user fees for the cosmetics industry to fund enhanced monitoring in its fiscal 2013 budget.

It cites the exponential growth in the US cosmetics market, with the number of imported cosmetic products nearly doubling between 2004 and 2010 to almost 2 million.

FDA director Michael Landa says tougher standards are needed due to rapidly changing technology.
Tougher scrutiny was necessary to address rapidly changing technology and more-aggressive marketing claims for skin-care products, he added.

"The industry often refers to these products as "cosmeceuticals.’ Though that term "has no legal or regulatory definition in the U.S.," said Landa.

According to Landa, anti-wrinkle component retinol, which wasn’t registered with the FDA before 2005, is now listed in 200 products.

The Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) is not, however, seeing eye to eye with the administration on mandatory product and ingredient registrations or new user fees, though it is not resisting the improved regulation.

PCPC President Lezlee Westine said that while cosmetic products remain among the safest in commerce, the existing system for regulating our industry is overdue for a makeover.

"The additional safeguards and processes her group proposes "will provide the added transparency that consumers are seeking," added Westine.