On July 29, 2020, China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) opened a public consultation on draft Cosmetic Classification Rules and Catalog. 1 On April 9, 2021, the finalized Cosmetic Classification Rules and Catalogs (hereinafter referred to as “the Catalogs”) was officially released and will come into force on May 1, 2021. 2
Notably, starting from the Catalogs’ effective date, cosmetic registrants or notifiers shall fill in the product classification code in accordance with the Catalogs when applying for registration of special cosmetics or notification of general cosmetics. For cosmetics that have been registered or notified before May 1, 2021, the cosmetics registrants and notifiers shall supplement product classification codes through the cosmetics registration and notification information service platform before May 1, 2022.
Highlights of the Finalized Catalogs
The Catalogs specify that the classification of cosmetics will adopt a coding system, which has five layers in order as follows: