Our mission
Our mission is to see an end to safety and efficacy tests for cosmetics, chemicals and their ingredients, conducted on animals.
We’ve witnessed animal testing first hand and of course, no-one would ever want to conduct animal tests if robust alternatives were available. But it is a scientific, rather than just ethical drive behind XCellR8. With an in depth, academic understanding of physiology and how chemicals react with the body, we believe that more accurate and reproducible results are achieved when tests are conducted on human skin cells instead of animals.
SAFE, AND SOUND
It’s why we’ve dedicated our business to developing animal-free alternative tests and sought to achieve regulatory accreditation for them so they can be adopted by the wider industry, without ever jeopardising human safety.
We understand that consumers and regulators want to see an end to unnecessary animal cruelty but that human safety can never be compromised. Innovations in animal-free technologies are already showing that greater levels of sensitivity and equally robust test data are within reach, today.
SAFETY TESTING COSMETIC CLAIM SUPPORT
A NOTE ON ANIMAL-FREE
Many of us are used to reading labels that make claims such as ‘not tested on animals’ or ‘cruelty-free.’ In truth, the Cosmetics Directive has prohibited animal testing for cosmetic products since 2004, and cosmetic ingredients since 2009. And yet 31% of UK consumers still believe animal research for cosmetics is permitted, whilst only 5% believe it should be.*
So why does this misconception persist? Why don’t advertisers shout about their animal-free credentials? We suspect it could be because of the confusion arising from conflicting requirements of different pieces of EU legislation, and because the use of animal-derived products is currently allowed. Compliance Officers may feel such claims can’t be truly supported, especially if their customer base is especially attuned to animal welfare issues.
We think it’s only a matter of time before products such as bovine serum or liver extract, sometimes used in in vitro testing, are included within the Cosmetics Directive. At XCellR8, we’ve never used animals or animal-derived products in any of our tests. Companies who use our regulatory tests can satisfy legislative safety requirements and animal testing bans at the same time. That feels like a win win all round.
*Source: Attitudes to Animal Research in 2014 (2014)