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Peptides and INCI regulatory
@Perry the recent INCI webinar was fantastic. Thank you for that!
Something recently came under my radar and I wanted to get your thoughts. I came across a “peptide” brand, and I noticed that quite a few of their products don’t list peptide INCI’s in the decks. See below:
Aspartic Acid, Arginine, Glutamic Acid, Glutamine, Glycine, Lysine, Methionine, Proline, Valine, Distilled Water, Propylene Glycol, Xanthan, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, and Diazolidinyl Urea
Just free amino acids. A rep for them told me - “We don’t use the peptide name (INCI) because we want to prevent theft from China and our peptides are proprietary, so we just list out the amino acids in the peptide sequence”I immediately sensed some bullshit. First of all, isn’t it true that the FDA rarely grants proprietary/trade secret status to cosmetics/cosmetic ingredients? Would the INCI regulators let a brand only list the amino acids in the peptide sequence, and not the complete INCI declaration? To me this sounds like they are not playing within the legal framework the rest of us play in. I could be wrong, but something just doesn’t feel right.
Thanks for any insight!
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2 Replies
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Thanks for the kind words.
This is more of a legal question so I’m sure you could find a lawyer who would give the company the advice that they could do it that way. This would be bad advice and goes against the rules as laid out by the FDA and the INCI Dictionary, but that kind of thing happens in the cosmetic industry frequently. Especially with small companies.
I think you’re correct. Listing amino acids rather than the INCI named peptide would be a mistake. And listing them in alphabetical at the start of the ingredient list is also incorrect. There is a lot wrong with that list.
But in the US a company could get away with it initially, at least until the FDA discovers them and sends a sternly worded letter threatening fines.
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@Perry Thank you! It truly does shock me the nonsense I see small brands try to get away with. I appreciate your insight!
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