Congressional Skin Cancer Caucus Briefing on Improving Sun Safety Measures and Promoting Sunscreen Innovation

Sunscreen remains one of the most important tools we have as melanoma advocates to prevent melanoma and other skin cancers, but for the past two decades, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has made few advances in bringing advanced and more protective sunscreen filters to market in the United States. That’s why on December 7th, the MRF’s Director of Advocacy, Kim Watkins, joined policy specialists and dermatologists in a briefing to congressional staffers to discuss pathways to improve sun safety measures, promote sunscreen protection and close the gap with global UV protection standards to reduce the rise of skin cancer incidence in the United States.

Unlike most countries, the United States regulates sunscreen as a drug not a cosmetic product. As a result, sunscreen filters are approved slowly and with extra testing and clinical trial requirements compared to the rest of the world. While that system should function to keep Americans safe, it also results in a backlog of sunscreen filter applications and added cost to manufacturers with no real path forward to approval. In 2014, Congress worked with the FDA to craft the Sunscreen Innovation Act with the intention of removing some of the regulatory burdens to speed the sunscreen approval process by allowing filters to come to market under a designation known as GRASE, or generally recognized as safe and effective.

Unfortunately, the FDA still has not approved new sunscreens, even with a clear path towards approving new filters. Additionally, the FDA is also using the provisions of the Sunscreen Innovation Act to retroactively review already approved sunscreen filters. In 2019, the FDA issued a proposed order that, if finalized, could lead to further scientific review of 12 sunscreen filters already on the market and fully remove two, meaning that the United States will only have two FDA-approved sunscreen filters unless manufacturers are able to fund animal studies for ingredients that have been safely used in humans for decades.

At the invitation of the Personal Care Products Council, the MRF joined the Congressional Skin Cancer Caucus and other experts in the fields of sunscreen and skin cancer to express concerns that the FDA’s proposed rule will further widen the gap in the number of available sunscreen filter formulations between the US and other countries, erode public trust in public health interventions, and result in even wider health disparities as people of color and rural or low income communities struggle to find sunscreens appropriate to their skin tone or afford the sunscreens available on the market.  

The MRF will continue to engage the FDA on this issue and work towards solutions for all Americans. To view the press release issued by Congressman Dave Joyce’s (OH-14), Co-Chair of the Congressional Skin Cancer Caucus, office visit here:  

Joyce Participates in Congressional Skin Cancer Briefing with Industry Leaders – Dave Joyce (house.gov)