Recently antibacterial soaps banned in US by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) amid claims they do more harm than good. US FDA banned the use of certain compounds in antibacterial hand and body wash products. India’s CDSCO (Central Drug Standard Control Organization) is set to reflect whether their use in India poses a public health risk that requires a closer look.

The antibacterial liquid hand-wash market is a little overRs.500 crore in India and growing 15% annually.  Antibacterial products are $1 billion industry in the US, the market size in India is fairly small.

Soaps and hand-washes are classed as cosmetics in India subject to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. Some popular soaps and hand washes in India such as Hindustan Unilever’s Lifebuoy, ITC’s Savlon, Wipro’s Santoor and Godrej’s Cinthol uses triclosan and triclocarban.

The FDA, for instance, revealed in 2013 that some data suggested that “long-term contact to certain active ingredients used in antibacterial products for example, triclosan (liquid soaps) and triclocarban (bar soaps) could pose health risks such as bacterial resistance or hormonal effects.”

The cosmetics division of CDSCO will take a call on it, if need be. It depends on whether there is a public health issue at stake here,” said CDSCO official cited earlier. The Indian cosmetic regulatory body (CDSCO) will provide the registration certificate in Form 43. The required documents and the steps for registering your cosmetic products can be found on our blog section – Process of Cosmetic Registration in India.