PARADIS: It's a big deal. The first new active sunscreen ingredient has been approved in the United States in more than 25 years. It's called bemotrizinol, or BEMT.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #5: Bemotrizinol.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #6: Bemotrizinol.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #7: Bemotrizinol.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #8: BEMT, or bemotrizinol.
PARADIS: And this has been decades in the making.
RASCOE: OK. Is it bemotrizinol or - what is it?
PARADIS: Honestly, I've heard it many different ways. I'm going with bemotrizinol, but...
RASCOE: OK. OK. So bemotrizinol. And so how is that different from what is already available here in the U.S.?
PARADIS: Yeah. In a few ways. So the way sunscreen works is that, one way or another, it basically absorbs the light from the sun - those UV rays which are harmful and can damage our DNA. Bemotrizinol has broader UV protection than what's currently on the market in the U.S. It also lasts longer. And it's a bigger molecule, so it doesn't absorb into the skin as easily as other molecules. And it's been available for decades in Europe, parts of Asia, Australia.
ADEWOLE ADAMSON: It's better. It's advanced.
PARADIS: This is Adewole Adamson. He goes by Ade. He is a dermatologist and associate professor in internal medicine at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas, Austin.
ADAMSON: This is why, you know, you go online, and you have influencers talking about sunscreens from other parts of the world. They all have this stuff. And so this is now our opportunity to be able to catch up with the rest of the world as it comes to, you know, modern sunscreens.
RASCOE: Well, I guess I didn't realize we were behind the rest of the world when it comes to sunscreens. I think there was a thought that maybe we were on par with the rest of the world because we have those mineral sunscreens, right? Like, what about those?
PARADIS: Totally. So in mineral sunscreen, the UV filters are zinc oxide and titanium oxide. And the perennial issue with them is the white-paint effect. Some are better than others on this point. But as Ade put it, bemotrizinol could be described as more, quote, "cosmetically elegant."
RASCOE: OK. People want to protect themselves from the sun, but they don't want to look like a ghost. So if bemotrizinol is so much better and it's available in Europe and other parts of Asia, why did it take so long to be available here in the United States?
PARADIS: That's a good question. It is confusing. Since it's intended to prevent skin cancer, the U.S. regulates sunscreen exclusively as an over-the-counter drug. That is different from how it's regulated in many other regions, including the EU, where sunscreen is regulated as a cosmetic. And what this means is we have an extremely high bar here. I spoke with Alexa Friedman, senior scientist with a consumer watchdog called the Environmental Working Group, or EWG. This is a group which has also been lobbying the FDA to consider more sunscreen ingredients. So I asked her.
This sounds like, based on, like - the U.S. has higher standards. It sounds like we would have better sunscreens.
ALEXA FRIEDMAN: It does.
(LAUGHTER)
FRIEDMAN: The issue is that in the United States, because of this lengthy process, we haven't had access to the same filters that are in international markets.
PARADIS: So when Alexa says lengthy process - bemotrizinol was first proposed to the FDA in 2005. So if it gets to the market this fall, which is what's expected, that means it took more than 20 years.
