Three dozen organisations, including some of the world’s leading personal care ingredient makers, have launched the International Collaboration on Cosmetics Safety (ICCS) to ensure animal-free methods are accepted and used by everyone involved in cosmetics safety testing.
ICCS will support animal-free cosmetics and personal care product/ingredient innovation by funding rigorous, scientific evaluation of new animal-free safety assessment approaches.
It will share the results of these evaluation activities with cosmetic and chemical regulators and fund education and training activities to help build confidence in animal-free safety assessment approaches.
“We have seen significant scientific advancements in the development, evaluation and use of animal-free methods for safety assessment in recent decades,” said Erin Hill, president and CEO of ICCS.
“ICCS brings together scientists from leading organizations around the world to continue this momentum and work toward our shared ambition for a future where no ingredients or products are tested on animals,” she added.
"ICCS is a global collaboration focused on animal-free safety science for cosmetics and ingredients, which currently face unique challenges and inconsistent global regulations."
Personal care ingredient producers participating in the scheme include BASF, Croda, Evonik, IFF and Innospec.
“The safety of the cosmetics and personal care products that consumers use and trust every day is our top priority,” said John Chave, acting board chair of ICCS and director general of Cosmetics Europe.
“Thanks to evolved scientific methods, we can ensure cosmetics and personal care product safety assessments are performed both rigorously and ethically, without animal testing,” he added.
“There is more to be done as science progresses, and multiple research projects are already underway at ICCS to further advance animal-free science methods.”
