This blog post was published under the 2015 to 2024 Conservative government

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Jenny Yao

Project Management Officer of the Beijing Science and Innovation Team

Part of Global Science and Innovation Network

23rd November 2016 Beijing, China

First non-animal test method accepted by China

China has taken an important step, supported by the Science & Innovation team in Beijing, to improve animal welfare in China. On 11 November the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) published its first non-animal method for testing cosmetic ingredients.
This is great news as the new method can now be used to assess the safety of cosmetic ingredients without the need for animal testing. Even though the finished cosmetic products still need to be tested on animals, this is nevertheless a significant step forward for China in moving towards the international standard of non-animal testing for cosmetics.
With the support of Prosperity Fund, the UK Government started to work with the CFDA almost 3 years ago to promote non-animal testing methods for cosmetics in China. Our work this year has involved receiving the CFDA Vice-Minister to the UK in June to further promote our cooperation, co-hosting a training course on safety assessment for CFDA regulators in Shanghai in September, and participating in the International Conference on Cosmetics Alternative Methods in Hangzhou in October.
Our efforts to influence China to change its regulation on animal testing of cosmetics can open the door to UK and European cosmetics companies to a market worth over £25bn. Ultimately, it will allow ethical European companies who do not test on animals to enter the Chinese market. And likewise, it will upskill Chinese companies so that they can ethically enter the European market.

More details on the method can be found at the link below:
http://www.sda.gov.cn/WS01/CL0087/166246.html

2 comments on “First non-animal test method accepted by China

  1. A milestone in China cosmetics regulation history! Well done, Jenny and the HO team. Continued efforts are very much needed to accept more non-animal approaches in Chinese cosmetics regulations.

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About Jenny Yao

I’m Jenny Yao, Project Management Officer of the Beijing Science and Innovation Team. I am leading on projects for animal welfare and ethics in China to support China to work…

I’m Jenny Yao, Project Management Officer of the Beijing Science and Innovation Team. I am leading on projects for animal welfare and ethics in China to support China to work towards applying for OECD (MAD) system for the Non-clinical Safety Testing of Pharmaceuticals, eliminate unnecessary animal testing for cosmetics and embedding standards for welfare and ethical use of animals in science. I used to work for HMRC Beijing Office at the embassy for 2 years.

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