ICCS will support animal-free cosmetics and personal care product and ingredient innovation by funding scientific evaluation of new animal-free safety assessment approaches. It will share the results of these evaluation activities with global cosmetic and chemical regulators and fund education and training activities to help build confidence in animal-free safety assessment approaches. Unilever is a founding member of the ICCS with scientists from SEAC and Regulatory Affairs contributing to the scoping and successful launch.
At Unilever, we’ve developed and used alternatives to animal testing for decades and we want to help bring about an end to animal testing for cosmetics worldwide. We believe that with modern safety methods, there is no need for animals to be used in testing cosmetic ingredients. But in many parts of the world, chemicals policies and regulations require animal test data and have not yet incorporated the rapid progress in applying innovative, animal-free science to safety assessments.
“It’s never been a more important time for industry and NGOs to join forces for regulatory change and we look forward to working alongside our ICCS partners,” agrees Julia Fentem, Head of SEAC. “Unilever recently worked with animal protection organisations to support a European Citizens’ Initiative calling for EU policy-makers to protect a ban on animal testing for cosmetics which is under threat. The ECI closed with over 1.2 million signatures. The message from consumers is clear. The science is ready. It’s time for animal testing for cosmetics to end.”
For more details on ICCS and its members, visit www.iccs-cosmetics.org.
Unilever partners to advance alternatives to animal testing | Unilever