Brazil's National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) has enforced changes to its cosmetics approval system, in a bid to simplify and speed up its lengthy regulatory process.
The new system states that some cosmetics, such as face cream and toothpaste, are now only required to undergo a notification process, while others will require an in-depth registration process.
The aim of the rule change is to simplify and streamline the processing of certain cosmetics in the country so that Anivsa will be able to ‘focus its analysis on riskier products’.
Cosmetics are separated based on their risk level; those that are deemed low-risk can be cleared for market entry with just an online pre-marketing notification, saving them the process of full registration.
However, those considered high-risk, such as sunscreen, hand gel, children’s products and self-tan, will require registration and must be approved by Anvisa.
In its announcement, Anvisa reiterated that the standard does not change the parameters or safety requirements of cosmetics in the country, and that to ensure quality is not affected, ‘periodic’ and ‘random verification’ procedures will be carried out.
The latest change to the system follows years of lengthy approval processes for cosmetics in Brazil, which are said to have resulted in industry complaints surrounding the delay of new product releases, which also affect drug and medical device launches.
