L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics maker, is being told by US regulators to tone down claims on its Lancôme anti-ageing creams or submit the products to a drug review process reserved for pharmaceutical companies.
In a letter to the president of Lancôme USA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said some Lancôme products carry claims that “are intended to affect the structure or any function of the human body, rendering them drugs” under US law.
According to the letter, the products under scrutiny include the Génifique Youth Activating Concentrate, which claims to boost “the activity of genes and stimulates the production of youth proteins”, and Génifique Repair Youth Activating Night Cream, which claims to boost “the activity of genes”.
Lancôme has 15 days to respond to the FDA warning.
“We request that you take prompt action to correct all violations associated with your products, including the violations identified in this letter,” wrote the FDA’s Michael Roosevelt of the Centre for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
The FDA 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.
Michael Landa, the director of the agency’s food safety centre, said in March that these so-called cosmeceuticals often try to straddle the line between being a cosmetic treatment and a drug. – Sapa-AFP