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With a booming beauty industry worth some £28 billion, China has been a tantalising prospect for beauty brands wanting to crack a more global market for years - except for one thing. Historically, the Chinese government has required all cosmetic brands to submit their products for animal testing if they want to sell them in China, despite how safe they may have otherwise been proven to be.

Of course, many brands balk at this prospect and, after years of lobbying, the Institute for In Vitro Sciences (IIVS) has announced that the Chinese government has approved nine non-animal based methods, with the new legislation coming into play in 2020.

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According to a release, the new regulations will become the preferred testing method for the registration and pre-market approval of products.

The IIVS has worked with China's National Medical Products Association (NMPA) to help modernise its regulatory efforts and move away from animal testing. A lot of the work done by the IIVS has been to convince the relevant Chinese authorities of the reliability and safety of in vitro methods.

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The new legislation is slated to take effect on January 1 2020 - news that we're sure will thrill beauty and animal lovers in China, and around the globe.