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 Pharmacy aisles as we know them are about to change.
By Ronny Linder-Ganz at Haaretz.com
Many brands stocked today are likely to disappear over the next year or two because of two bills on animal testing in the cosmetics industry.
One of them, which prohibits animal testing in the development of detergents and cosmetics in Israel, was unanimously approved by the Knesset in second and third readings about three weeks ago. The other - a more radical one that seeks to forbid the import and distribution of animal-tested cosmetics - was unanimously approved by the Knesset's Education Committee before its first reading in the plenum.
MK Gideon Sa'ar is pushing the two bills which would remove animal-tested products from the shelves, or force companies to switch to alternative and more advanced methods.
The bill dealing with imports and distribution adopts the 2004 European directive prohibiting the distribution and sale of nearly all animal-tested products from March 2009.
"This means that in less than two years it will be forbidden to sell animal-tested products in Europe, which will completely stop testing in the field," says Anat Refua, the head of the Laboratory Animals Protection Division at the nonprofit organization Let the Animals Live.
Ilan Levy, marketing vice president for the Roots brand, agrees: "We assume that most companies will fall into line with the law and stop experimenting on animals." According to Refua, although there is still no such law in the United States, most major companies rely on the European market which they cannot ignore.
In Israel, as in Europe, the new regulations will gradually take effect once they are approved to allow importers to start preparing from March 2008. In 2009 the law will take full effect, except for several products in a special category to be banned in 2013.
Opponents of the legislation say the bills will introduce huge expenses (see box), but MK Sa'ar says the intention is "to pass a responsible and balanced bill designed to prevent future animal testing because today's market has testing methods that are better and more scientifically effective."
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