Conferences

“Despite there being a common regulatory framework for medicinal products in the European Union, there remains a diversity of approaches between EU member states with regards to how they regulate access to nonprescription medicines,” notes AESGP's Klavdija Kmetič, as the association updates its OTC ingredients directory.

When it comes to online consumer health product advertising, complying with regulations, ensuring that content is factually correct and being transparent are some of the key principles that companies should adhere to, recommends AESGP in a recently published position paper. 

Real-world data and evidence, for example generated by digital consumer health technology like apps and wearables, could provide crucial support for Rx-to-OTC switch applications, argues Sanofi Consumer Healthcare’s Penny Glover at the Association of the European Self-Care Industry's 60th Annual Meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Recent research by Sanofi indicates that regulators are actually already using RWD and RWE in many cases when assessing switch applications, even if they do not call it that. 

Industry can look forward to a global OTC market compound annual growth rate of around 7% over the next few years, according to IQVIA Consumer Health. Innovation will be key to ensure individual companies realize this level of growth. IQVIA CH's Amit Shukla and Simon-Kucher & Partners' Clemens Oberhammer point to some key consumer trends to keep an eye on at the recent AESGP Annual Meeting in Brussels. 

“It's really the elected officials who are making the final determination on what happens. They're really the owners of the teams, you guys in the industry are playing the game we’re refereeing,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf says at Consumer Healthcare Products Association conference.

“We've had several citizen petitions. We can't ignore the data that are out there and are very new since the last time FDA had looked at this back in 2007,” says FDA OTC drugs office director Theresa Michele.

Single-use packaging producers should heed the 1 October deadline in Colorado’s EPR law for paper and packaging to register with Circular Action Alliance lest they face enforcement action, said an advisor for that organization, which is leading the program’s administration, at IBA’s Cosmetics Convergence Fall 2024 Virtual Symposium.

At one year, TikTok Shop conjures the early days of Amazon, representing the ‘Wild West’ of beauty ecommerce, said co-founders of private label and contract manufacturing company KO-Pack at the IBA Cosmetics Convergence Fall 2024 Virtual Symposium, “The Promise and Pitfalls of TikTok Shop.”

The US' approach to international trade and potential for new tariffs on China or other partners could be the most significant issue for the beauty industry ahead of the presidential election in November, experts suggested at the Independent Beauty Association’s Cosmetics Convergence Fall 2024 Symposium.

The Independent Beauty Association says the towering demands posed by new, diverse legislation and regulations – especially at the US state level – have led it to partner with a consultancy that specializes in policy and global intelligence to provide industry-critical insights to the organization and help track bills.

The BBB National Program Inc. expects to double the number of National Advertising Division SWIFT reviews completed in 2023 compared with last year as stakeholders grow more comfortable with the process. At its annual conference in Philadelphia 19-20 September, NAD said it is speeding up the time it takes to complete both SWIFT and standard track reviews.

Attorneys presenting at the Personal Care Product Council’s 2024 annual meeting outlined measures beauty companies can take to protect their IP and combat counterfeiting operations. While marketing of sham products is not going to stop, companies can cultivate “a reputation within the counterfeiting community of being one of the brands that genuinely understands how to disrupt counterfeiters.”

The United Nations treaty on plastics pollution, considered ‘the most important climate deal since Paris,’ stands to have a direct impact on the cosmetics industry, potentially by targeting intentionally added nano-plastics in addition to microplastics in cosmetics, says attorney Melissa Kopolow, who spoke at the Personal Care Products Council’s annual meeting in Miami on 27 February.