The International Collaboration on Cosmetics Safety (ICCS) is focused on advancing the adoption of animal-free science for human and environmental safety assessments of cosmetics and their ingredients through science, education and training, and regulatory engagement.
While animal tests on cosmetics are increasingly banned around the globe, there remain regulatory requirements in different regions of the world that still mandate animal tests, including non-cosmetic related regulations, instead of permitting animal-free new approach methodologies (NAMs). NAMs have been demonstrated as equivalent or better for fulfilling such requirements.
This drives a need for animal testing even where viable NAMs exist. ICCS aims to address this paradox by understanding regulatory needs, supplying sound scientific solutions based on innovative, animal-free approaches for human and environmental health, and addressing education and training needs to collectively build confidence and promote regulatory acceptance.
ICCS will work with all stakeholders, including industry, safety assessors, regulators, and policymakers around the world to share the collective experience of applying NAMs and next-generation risk assessments (NGRA) frameworks to ensure cosmetic safety. In doing so, ICCS will accelerate the transition to global acceptance and use of animal-free science for human and environmental safety assessments for cosmetics.
International Collaboration on Cosmetic Safety
Strategic Priorities
Regulatory Engagement
Over the past decades, scientific advances in alternatives to animal testing, consumer demands and animal test bans have driven the investment to ensure cosmetics and personal care product safety assessments to be performed ethically, without animal testing. Now is the time to incorporate these advancements into cosmetic and chemical regulations to enable global acceptance of animal-free methods. ICCS will work with stakeholders around the world to share our collective experience and evaluate our animal-free testing frameworks to ensure they are protective and address regulatory needs.
Regulatory bodies and policymakers set standards, develop guidance, and pass legislation on cosmetics and ingredients with the goal of protecting consumers and the environment. However, as research and animal-free science methods have progressed, many policies and regulations have not yet incorporated them into safety assessments. ICCS aims to close this gap by understanding regulatory needs and supplying sound scientific solutions based on innovative animal free approaches.
Animal-Free Science
When consumers purchase cosmetics and personal care products, they rightly expect products that are safe for themselves, their families, and the environment, developed without animal testing. Safety means the product and its ingredients have undergone rigorous evaluation to ensure that it does not cause personal or environmental harm.
ICCS brings together cosmetics and personal care companies, cosmetic ingredient manufacturers, industry trade associations and animal protection organizations that have been at the forefront of developing, evaluating, and using animal-free approaches for regulatory safety assessments for nearly 40 years. Today, thanks to significant advancements in research using in silico and in vitro approaches, scientists can use animal-free science methods to ensure the safety of products and ingredients.
We work with regulators and the broader scientific community to demonstrate that modern animal-free testing methods can ensure human and environmental safety in cosmetics and personal care products.
Education and Training
As our scientists continue developing and applying new advances in animal-free testing methods, it is critical that ICCS also support widespread use of these new approaches for cosmetic ingredient and product safety assessment through education and training. ICCS commits to work with members, regulators, and all stakeholders to address education and training needs to accelerate global adoption of the latest animal-free safety science.
ICCS will seek to grow our collective expertise in animal-free safety science within member companies and the wider community by promoting existing learning materials and funding the creation of new learning content to address gaps. We will partner with existing training providers and continuing education organizations to deliver hands-on and virtual learning sessions designed to support safety assessors as they build their knowledge of animal-free approaches. In this way ICCS will help ensure a more rapid and efficient transition to human and environmental safety assessment.
