Chemical sunscreens also break down in the sun, so they need to be regularly reapplied.
Enter bemotrizinol. It’s a broad-spectrum chemical sunscreen that’s far more stable. “It would not degrade upon exposure to sunlight,” Lim said.
Another concern with other sunscreens is that some have shown the ability to seep into the bloodstream. (It remains unclear whether this is harmful.)
Bemotrizinol “does not penetrate the body surface and does not absorb into the bloodstream, so it has a good safety profile,” said Dr. Steven Wang, chief of dermatology at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, California.
Dr. Adam Friedman, a professor and the chair of dermatology at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C., added that chemical UV filters “are irritating at baseline, let alone if someone has acne, rosacea, eczema — it’s hard for people to be adherent to them because they sting.”
“It does seem to be better tolerated,” said Friedman of bemotrizinol, “in comparison to other UV filters.”
“Bemotrizinol will be a welcome addition to the U.S. sunscreen industry,” Wang said.
It will also be the first new UV filter in the U.S. in over 25 years.
The FDA acknowledged that it has taken a long time to arrive at this point.
“The agency has historically moved too slowly in this area, leaving Americans with fewer options than consumers abroad,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said in a press release.
One of the main reasons is that in the U.S., sunscreen filter ingredients are classified as over-the-counter drugs, as opposed to cosmetics, meaning they require clinical trials to test for safety and effectiveness before they can be approved.
“In Europe, they’re not looked at that way,” Friedman said. “That’s why they can come out with things much faster.”
The FDA said that a new sunscreen, like bemotrizinol, can be brought to market without an approved drug application if it meets certain requirements. To do so, the FDA must first make a proposal. The proposal must go through a public comment period before it issues the final order and adds bemotrizinol to its list of allowed sunscreen ingredients.
Ben Nichols, an FDA spokesman, said the agency expects that the final order will come sometime next summer or fall and that sunscreen with bemotrizinol could be sold in the U.S. as early as late 2026.