There will be some new changes to the United States Food and Drug Administration's Sunscreen Monograph. These changes seem simple but may take some time to enact. Since the first original sunscreen monograph was released back in 1978, there have been some changes which were supposed to make it a final monograph, but it has always turned out to be another tentative monograph. But these changes also promise to make this the "final sunscreen monograph". The biggest difference the consumers will immediately see is an increase in the maximum SPF label declaration from the original 30+ to 50+. These changes will be critically important in the anti-aging skin care and the sun care market segments.
These latest changes are meant to improve the products we develop to make them safer and more effective for the consumer. The major changes that we will see by the end of 2009 although fairly simple, will be pretty large. They will involve the changes in wording of the SPF claim itself and in the numerical values that are assigned to products.