The International Collaboration on Cosmetics Safety (ICCS) and the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) have announced a partnership aimed at advancing safety standards for cosmetic ingredients. This new collaboration focuses on the exchange of scientific information and the development of methods that reduce reliance on animal testing.
ICCS, a global initiative dedicated to promoting the adoption of animal-free cosmetic testing methods, and CIR, a research body that assesses ingredient safety through expert panels, share a commitment to improving how cosmetic ingredients are evaluated. Both organisations are working towards advancing the use of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) and Next Generation Risk Assessments (NGRAs) in the cosmetics industry, which aim to provide more human-relevant safety evaluations without the use of animals.
Erin Hill, CEO of ICCS, expressed her enthusiasm for the partnership. “We welcome the opportunity for continued engagement with CIR as ICCS works to develop more human-predictive approaches. Our goal is to eliminate the need for animal testing in cosmetics altogether.”
Fostering global dialogue
As part of the agreement, ICCS and CIR will participate in a series of regional and international meetings, as well as scientific workshops, to further cosmetic safety research. The two organisations will exchange research findings and best practices, promoting the wider adoption of NAMs and NGRAs in regulatory assessments.
NAMs refer to innovative testing methods that do not involve animals and offer a more accurate prediction of human reactions to cosmetic ingredients. Meanwhile, NGRAs represent a risk assessment framework that integrates these new approaches, with the goal of ensuring the safety of cosmetic ingredients in a more humane and scientifically robust way.
ICCS plans to use the collaboration as a platform to develop standardised best practice guidelines for the use and interpretation of NAMs and NGRAs. These guidelines are expected to help regulatory bodies around the world better understand and adopt these new methods, potentially leading to a significant reduction in the need for animal testing in the cosmetic industry.
Commitment to safety and innovation
CIR’s Executive Director, Bart Heldreth, welcomed the partnership, saying: “By collaborating, we hope to foster a synergistic research-sharing relationship that underscores the safety of ingredients used in cosmetics. This partnership allows us to combine our expertise and push forward with scientifically innovative approaches to cosmetic safety.”
The partnership builds on decades of work by both organisations to improve safety standards in the cosmetic industry, while moving away from outdated animal testing methods. ICCS, in particular, has been at the forefront of advocating for regulatory acceptance of animal-free testing worldwide.
The collaboration was formalised with the signing of a memorandum of understanding by Hill and Heldreth. Both leaders are confident that the partnership will lead to significant advances in the use of NAMs and NGRAs, which they hope will eventually become the standard for cosmetic safety testing.
This move aligns with growing consumer demand for cruelty-free cosmetics and could represent a major step forward in improving both the ethical and scientific standards of the industry.