Grecian Formula marketer Combe likens the process and calculations that informed FDA’s final rule against lead acetate to “a child’s game of telephone.” Environmental Defense Fund warns that if FDA grants Combe’s request – which the NGO suspects is unavoidable – it intends to cross-examine the company’s witnesses about consumer complaints and their handling in the firm’s past.

According to the NGO, not only are animals continuing to suffer in testing the Cosmetics Regulation’s animal-testing prohibitions were designed to eliminate, cruelty-free brands are having an increasingly difficult time avoiding animal-tested ingredients due to failings in the European Chemicals Agency’s administration of REACH.

With no end to the partial shutdown in sight, public safety concerns are mounting along with anxiety among furloughed employees. FDA Commissioner Gottlieb remains a vibrant presence on social media, working to maintain staff morale and reassure the public that critical agency functions carry on.

Clarification of requirements and a “demanding” timeline for industry’s defense of cosmetic ingredients identified as potentially carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic, and the Commission’s forthcoming list of potential endocrine disruptors in cosmetic products, are among challenges facing Cosmetics Europe in 2019 and beyond.

Trade group Cosmetics Europe launched an education and advocacy campaign in 2018 to address industry’s shrinking preservative palette, which many believe has reached “crisis proportions." Stateside, 2018 saw growing movement in the development and use of alternative preservative systems, while Cosmetic Ingredient Review activity accelerated around conventional go-tos.

The Personal Care Products Council’s head of global strategies says a revised cosmetics framework law could be enacted in China in the 2019 first quarter. It’s expected to shift China to a more risk-based system, reducing bureaucratic red tape and promoting fairer competition, though some of the finer details will depend on implementing regulations.

Lawmakers already are taking action to ban sales of oxybenzone- and octinoxate-containing sunscreens due to signals, however questionable, that the ingredients pose dangers to coral health. Now a new study suggests that octocrylene could be a concern as well.

On par with 2017, the Personal Care Products Council was tracking more than 300 state bills last year with potential implications for its members, including measures ultimately enacted by California and Hawaii to deter cosmetic animal testing and ban environmentally questionable sunscreens.

Despite repeated stakeholder assertions of being “closer than ever” to modernizing cosmetics regulations, the 115^th Congress ended with reform legislation stranded in committee. The Personal Care Products says midterm elections diverted lawmakers’ attention from unresolved issues, likely including possible preemption terms to put a lid on growing state and local requirements.

The Florida island city could be the next jurisdiction to prohibit the sale of oxybenzone- and octinoxate-containing sunscreens. Industry maintains that available science does not clearly link the ingredients to coral decline, with the Personal Care Products Council asking to present before the Key West City Commission at its January meeting.

With Democrats in control of the House and New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone in line for chair of the Energy & Commerce Committee, cosmetics regulatory reform legislation could receive even more attention in the 116^th Congress than in the current session. The new climate could test how serious big business is about embracing large-scale changes as well as lawmakers’ openness to federal preemption. 

The UK is converting the EU’s Cosmetics Regulation and REACH into UK law, holding out hope that mutual interests will yield an arrangement for “frictionless trade.” However, the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association notes “the political landscape is very uncertain.”

J&J shares are down nearly 12% since Reuters reported Dec. 14 that the firm has known for decades about toxic asbestos in its Johnson’s Baby Powder talc. The news outlet’s probe turned up nothing that hasn’t been raised by plaintiff attorneys, but throws the central issues of contention into high relief for its global audience.

Henkel’s Sexy Hair Concepts and Ulta will settle with plaintiffs over alleged “sulfate-free” deception, to the tune of $2.3m; Unilever’s Dermalogica is suing Target for unauthorized selling of diverted products. More cosmetics news in brief.

Former Avon employees claim they faced discrimination, even harassment, and ultimately were terminated due to their pregnancies and requests for accommodation. Both Avon Products, Inc. and its carved-out North American business, New Avon, are named as defendants in the putative class action, which seeks injunctive relief and damages for alleged economic, emotional and reputational injuries.

Keystone Labs agrees to cease manufacturing OTC drugs following a 2013 FDA warning letter and repeated GMP violations noted during inspections, including failure to investigate sources of contamination. Firm suggests it will continue making cosmetic hair- and skin-care formulas while outsourcing OTC product manufacturing.

US circuit court rejects petitions from Breckenridge Pharmaceutical, Lannett Co., Nexgen Pharma and Paddock Labs to order FDA to conduct a hearing on their requests to sustain approvals for Rx PEG 3350 generics. FDA's approvals of the Rx ANDAs are set to expire Nov. 2; the agency said the Rx products were rendered unapproved in 2006 when the same formulation became available OTC.