Regulators from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned L’Oreal SA, the world’s biggest cosmetics group, to stop advertising its skincare products using language that makes them sound like drugs.
Government officials were especially concerned with marketing campaigns for Lancome anti-aging creams, saying they make claims normally reserved for prescription drugs. If L’Oreal wants to continue using such claims, officials said they would have to submit the creams for a drug review process normally reserved for pharmaceutical companies and dermatologists in CT agree with the fed’s suggestion.
The FDA said Lancome USA, a L’Oreal unit, claimed some of its skin creams could “boost the activity of genes” or “stimulate cell regeneration” to reduce signs of aging. Any product that is intended to affect the structure or function of the human body is classified as a drug, the FDA said, according to a warning letter posted on its website on Tuesday.
The FDA sent a warning letter Sept. 7 to Serge Jureidini, the U.S. president for L’Oreal’s Lacome branch. The FDA cited some of the company’s night creams, sunscreens and eye lifters for youthful claims that go beyond simple beautification and instead offer to alter the body’s function or structure, making them drugs by regulatory definition. Jureidini was given 15 working days to respond to the FDA.
The FDA this year has targeted a growing crop of beauty treatments that are partly pharmaceutical, such as wrinkle creams with retinol, saying they may need to be regulated as drugs. Dermatologist Fairfield CT say the move is appropriate and feel intensive skin care products need to be placed under tighter regulations.
Under U.S. law, companies are not allowed to sell drugs in the United States without submitting an application to the FDA proving their products are safe and effective and then winning FDA approval. L’Oreal, a French company, was not immediately available for comment.
The FDA said failure to fix the advertising claims could lead to enforcement actions, such as seizure of the products and injunctions against their manufacturers and distributors.
