The Cosmetic, Toiletry & Fragrance Association is launching an "ambitious" agenda for 2007, with global harmonization, FDA funding and member education listed as top priorities for the new year.

"We see our agenda this next year as an ambitious one, but I think no less ambitious than what we see in our companies - plans for launching new products, growing globally [and] continuing to be innovative," CTFA President Pam Bailey told "The Rose Sheet" in a Dec. 13 interview.

CTFA's biggest challenge has been keeping up with its members' rate of growth, she said, and with "enormous growth opportunities" emerging in expanding markets outside the U.S., that challenge is likely to persist.

Reaching those international markets will require the assurance that no trade barriers - "traditional or regulatory" - stand in the way, Bailey observed.

To this end, CTFA will "officially" launch a global harmonization program in 2007 to provide a forum for industry and regulators to identify trouble spots and come to a global consensus on appropriate regulations.

The program will allow for negotiation on an annual basis, Bailey said, noting that a similar harmonization process has "existed for 15 years or more" for the drug and medical device industries.

In 2006, CTFA concluded preliminary talks with trade groups in Europe, Canada and Japan toward initiating the global effort, according to Bailey. The countries will now seek to identify existing commonalities in regulatory structures and proceed from there.

"Once a standard or a guideline is agreed to at the harmonization level, each country participating then issues its own guidances or regulations consistent with the agreement, and you can see the benefit to a manufacturer, because it means they are in compliance with the regulatory requirements everywhere," Bailey said.

Consumers also would benefit, as such a program would not only expedite access to new products but assure that those products are "manufactured consistently, safely, no matter where they are sold."

The Hunt For FDA Funding Goes On

Increasing FDA funding will be CTFA's "No. 1 federal priority" in 2007, according to Bailey.

"I think there is a fairly deep level of concern within Congress about the current state of FDA funding and an awareness that the cosmetic program share has been eroding over time," she said.

In fact, over the last several years, those resources have declined to "a dangerously low level," Bailey asserted. It is important, she added, for "the public [to] see a strong, adequately funded FDA program dedicated to cosmetic safety."

CTFA plans to work with Congress, as well as other stakeholders, in pursuit of a "secure, sustainable, permanent funding base for FDA's cosmetics programs," Bailey said.

This year, the association says it will also broaden its Web-based education program that debuted in 2006, with plans to offer its member companies 15 new Webinars on regulatory, legislative and scientific issues.

Safety assurance will continue to be a dominant concern in the new year.

In response to outcries from consumer advocacy groups that cosmetics are inadequately regulated, CTFA pledged last year to educate Congress about the system and to work with FDA to maintain an effective balance between voluntary self-management and agency oversight (¹ Also see "CTFA Stresses Importance Of FD&C Act In Congressional Outreach" - HBW Insight, 16 January, 2006., p. 4).

Bailey noted that consumers are "asking for more information about the ingredients in their products [and] want to be sure the products they buy are safe and ... that there are safety standards continuously in place globally."

Hence, "the industry's commitment to safety, [as well as] innovation and advanced technology, is in the spotlight even more than ever before," she said.

However, assurances of safety are increasingly difficult to make as cosmetics grow more sophisticated. The rise of nanotechnology - the use of specially engineered particles on a near-atomic scale to enhance product performance - particularly complicates matters.

"It means it's more important than ever that the safety validation steps be followed, that the information be available - if it's a new ingredient - for assessment," Bailey stressed.

Further New Year's Resolutions - Not So New?

A "five-point roadmap" plotting CTFA's goals in 2006 will carry over into the new year, according to Bailey.

Early in 2006, the association vowed to focus on its Cosmetic Ingredient Review process and to implement any changes - particularly in the way of public transparency - that would help strengthen the program (² Also see "CTFA Roadmap Aims To Reinforce Cosmetics Industry’s Agenda" - HBW Insight, 13 March, 2006., p. 3).

The initiative was prompted in large part by passage of the California Safe Cosmetics Act the previous fall.

Strongly opposed by CTFA, the game-changing legislation - which will come into force this month - requires cosmetics manufacturers doing sales in California to report to the Department of Health Services the use of chemicals deemed hazardous and to supply relevant health effects data.

CTFA aspires to build on last year's efforts so that the CIR expert panel is both reviewing more ingredients and providing more readily available information to the public, Bailey said.

In 2006, CTFA also initiated development of a consumer commitment code to formalize many of the quality-assurance practices already in place among its members and to make safety information more accessible to FDA.

"We thought it important to have our member companies certify [that] they are following those safety practices, so this [past] year we did a great deal of education throughout the industry about the code," Bailey explained.

Another element of the commitment code is industry's registration with FDA through the voluntary electronic registration program, implemented in December 2005.

The consumer commitment code will "officially" go into effect Jan. 1, Bailey said.

Thirdly, the group announced plans last year to launch a consumer beauty information Web site - a "comprehensive online information center that will provide consumers with all nonbiased and credible safety information," including the testing approaches taken by CIR on cosmetic ingredients, according to CTFA.

Developed in partnership with member companies and outside experts, the site is still coming together "because we want it to be thoughtfully constructed and responsive to consumer needs," Bailey explained. It will go live in 2007, she said.

"The code, the Web site - all our programs are designed to enable safety to keep pace with the rate of innovation," Bailey concluded.

CTFA's fourth focus area for 2007 is government advocacy. In 2006, CTFA expanded its advocacy programs beyond California to include legislators in other states in order to "facilitate improved understanding about the nature of our products, the safety behind their development and assurances that consumers should have about their safety," she said.

In Washington, CTFA is working on a bipartisan basis with members of Congress who represent the group's member companies or whose districts are home to their manufacturing facilities and scientists.

Such efforts "will serve industry well as Congress shifts next year to a Democratic Congress," Bailey asserted.

Lastly, CTFA worked in 2006 to strengthen relations with its overseas counterparts, as well as foreign regulators and government officials, Bailey said.

"This year we really developed a much more robust and proactive global strategy program ... [with] work efforts underway in China, Russia, Korea and Japan."

The trade group also contributed to negotiation efforts toward the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement and the U.S.-Japan Regulatory Reform Initiative, she noted.

CTFA's global strategies program will continue and likely expand in coming months, Bailey said.

FDA's Office of Color & Cosmetics' priority objectives for fiscal year 2007 are currently undergoing review (³ Also see "CFSAN Reports Hitting Four Of Four Priority Goals For Cosmetics In FY 2006" - HBW Insight, 18 December, 2006., p. 3).

- Melina Vissat

CTFA Prioritizes Globalization, FDA Funding Among Goals For 2007

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