Breakthrough! Good Clean Love Spares Animals Tests, Sets Precedent at FDA
Our campaign to end tests on animals just took a big hop forward. With the help of PETA scientists, personal lubricant company Good Clean Love has spared rabbits and guinea pigs painful experiments that are required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). And this precedent-setting victory will open the door for other companies to use non-animal tests.
For years, PETA has been working with animal-friendly lubricant companies to convince the FDA to accept test methods that don’t require guinea pigs and rabbits to be injected with lubricants. Last year, we met with the FDA to find out just what it would take for the agency to accept replacements for experiments that use animals.
When we asked FDA officials if lubricant companies could test their products on human volunteers instead of animals, they said that it had never been tried before but that they would consider it. So we asked our friends at Good Clean Love if they would give it a shot, and they jumped at the opportunity.
After many months of planning and hard work, the results are in. For the first time, the FDA has accepted results from human tests, instead of those from animal experiments, to determine if lubricants will cause skin irritation and allergic reactions.
Good Clean Love is overjoyed that their product, bio-phresh Restore moisturizing gel, is the first lubricant ever to be approved by the FDA without testing the product on rabbits and guinea pigs. The company is now working with us to try to replace all animal testing for their next product.
This is a resounding victory for animals. And PETA is getting the word out to other lubricant companies that they, too, should switch. The human test is just like a simple allergy test. It costs companies about half as much as experimenting on animals, and the results are obviously much more relevant to human biology. Since tests using human volunteers can take several weeks, we’ve also teamed up with companies to develop a test using human cells that takes only days.
“[PETA’s] assistance was instrumental in helping us convince the FDA that human skin testing is not only a good alternative but also a more reliable one for evaluating the irritation and allergic reaction effects of our product.”
—Wendy Strgar, CEO and Founder, Good Clean Love
Step by step, we’re persuading the FDA to get on board with humane science by working with companies that are just as motivated as we are. With every company that follows Good Clean Love’s lead, we get closer to a day when all lubricants are truly cruelty-free.
What You Can Do
Urge the FDA to support the development of non-animal test methods. And in the meantime, check out PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies searchable online database to find the best animal-friendly products for you.
