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America Just Got Access to a Sunscreen Ingredient the Rest of the World Has Had for Decades

On June 9th, the FDA approved bemotrizinol, the first new sunscreen ingredient in the US in 25 years. Europe has had it since the late 1990s. Here's what it does, why it took this long, and what it means for sun protection going forward.

Max Stephens

7/30/20265 min read

For most of the last two decades, if you wanted to buy a sunscreen in the United States, you were working with the same basic set of ingredients that were available in the 1990s. Europe, Australia, and much of Asia moved forward with newer, more effective UV filters. The US regulatory process didn't keep pace, and American consumers have been using an older generation of sun protection technology while better options existed elsewhere and weren't available here.

That changed on June 9th, 2026, when the FDA approved bemotrizinol, also known as BEMT or by its trade name Tinosorb S, as the first new sunscreen active ingredient in the United States since 1999. It's the result of a regulatory process that took over 25 years to complete and involved a company called DSM-Firmenich submitting safety data, running FDA-requested studies, and navigating a sunscreen regulatory framework that dermatologists and public health researchers had been criticizing for years as outdated.

The UVA problem American sunscreens have always had

To understand why this approval matters, it helps to understand the specific gap it's filling.

Ultraviolet radiation reaches the skin in two primary forms. UVB rays are the ones responsible for visible sunburns. They affect the outer layers of skin and their consequences are immediately apparent. American sunscreens have historically performed well at blocking UVB, which is what SPF actually measures.

UVA rays are a different and are a more significant problem. They penetrate deeper into the skin, reaching the dermis where they damage collagen, drive premature aging, suppress the immune system, and contribute to the DNA damage that leads to skin cancer. UVA doesn't cause an immediate visible burn, which is part of why its consequences were under-appreciated for so long. The American Cancer Society has identified UVA as the primary contributor to melanoma risk. Skin cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States, with over 200,000 cases of melanoma projected this year.

Until June 9th, the only non-mineral UVA filter available in American sunscreens was avobenzone. And avobenzone has a well-documented problem: it's photounstable. When exposed to sunlight, it breaks down, losing its protective capacity during the period when you're actually relying on it. Manufacturers have worked around this limitation by combining it with photostabilizing agents, but the fundamental instability of the molecule has been a known limitation for years.

Zinc oxide, the mineral option, provides excellent broad-spectrum protection and doesn't break down in the sun. The reason most people avoid it is that many formulations leave a visible white cast on the skin, particularly on darker skin tones, which has made daily compliance difficult for a significant portion of the population.

What bemotrizinol actually does

Bemotrizinol is a broad-spectrum chemical UV filter that blocks both UVA and UVB rays. It's photostable, meaning it maintains its protective capacity in sunlight rather than degrading during use. It has minimal skin absorption compared to older chemical filters, which has been one of the primary safety concerns raised about conventional chemical sunscreens. And it can be combined with zinc oxide without producing the white cast that makes zinc oxide-only formulations problematic for daily use.

The Environmental Working Group, which publishes an annual sunscreen guide and has long been critical of the US regulatory gap, described bemotrizinol as having the most robust safety data of any UV filter tested to date. Alexa Friedman, a senior scientist at EWG, stated that bemotrizinol changes the calculus of sun care, specifically citing its photostability and its ability to provide meaningful UVA coverage without the limitations of avobenzone.

Because of its low irritation profile, the FDA cleared bemotrizinol for use on children as young as 6 months, which makes it the first chemical UV filter ever approved for infant use in the United States. Mineral sunscreens have been the only recommended option for infants due to chemical filter absorption and irritation concerns, and the addition of a chemical option with this safety profile is a meaningful expansion for parents navigating sun protection for young children.

Why this took 25 years

The regulatory pathway for new sunscreen ingredients in the United States has been a documented problem for decades.

Sunscreens are regulated as over-the-counter drugs rather than cosmetics in the US, which subjects them to a more intensive regulatory review than the process applied in Europe and elsewhere, where many of the same ingredients are classified as cosmetic products. The FDA's OTC monograph system, which governs sunscreen approval, had not been updated to accommodate new ingredient applications in a straightforward way, creating a situation where manufacturers faced an unclear and lengthy process to bring new filters to the American market even when those filters had decades of safety data from international use.

Congress passed the CARES Act in 2020, which included provisions intended to modernize the sunscreen approval process. The FDA issued proposed rule changes in 2021. DSM-Firmenich formally submitted its application for bemotrizinol under the new framework, the FDA proposed adding it to the approved list in December 2025, accepted public comments through January 2026, and finalized the approval in June.

The 25-year gap between approvals reflects both the complexity of the regulatory process and the degree to which it had fallen behind the pace of sunscreen science internationally.

What the international data shows

Bemotrizinol has been widely available in Europe since the late 1990s and in Australia and parts of Asia shortly after. That length of use has produced a body of real-world and clinical data.

Research comparing sunscreen formulations available in European markets, which have included bemotrizinol for decades, to American formulations relying on avobenzone has consistently found stronger UVA protection outcomes from the European products. Studies examining photoaging markers in populations using bemotrizinol-containing products over extended periods have documented better preservation of skin integrity than seen in comparable populations using avobenzone-based products as their primary UVA protection.

The American Academy of Dermatology has called the approval an important public health step, with AAD President Dr. Murad Alam describing it as expanding access to safe and effective sunscreens and helping save American lives from skin cancer. Dermatologists in the US have been pushing for access to bemotrizinol and other international UV filters for years, citing the international comparison data as evidence that the regulatory gap was producing a real public health cost.

When and how to access it

The first sunscreen products containing bemotrizinol are expected to reach US shelves in fall 2026. For the first 18 months following approval, only one manufacturer is authorized to produce the ingredient, which will then supply it to sunscreen brands. Several major manufacturers have already signed agreements to incorporate it into their product lines once supply becomes available.

The FDA approved bemotrizinol for use in oils, lotions, creams, gels, butters, pastes, ointments, and sticks, as well as sprays under specific conditions. The range of approved formats means it should appear across a broad spectrum of product types rather than being limited to a single category.

For consumers currently using avobenzone-based sunscreens, switching to a bemotrizinol-containing product when they become available represents a straightforward upgrade in UVA protection without sacrificing the texture and wearability advantages that keep people away from mineral-only options.

For anyone currently using zinc oxide-based mineral sunscreens for their UVA coverage, the combination of bemotrizinol with zinc oxide offers the potential for the same broad-spectrum protection without the white cast that limits how consistently mineral sunscreens get used in practice.

The bigger picture

The approval of bemotrizinol closes a specific and long-standing gap in American sun protection. It doesn't resolve every question in sunscreen science, and researchers continue to study optimal UV filter combinations, long-term absorption effects of various chemical filters, and the relationship between sunscreen use patterns and skin cancer outcomes.

What it does is give American consumers access to a tool that the scientific and dermatological community has considered superior to the available alternatives for years, and that consumers in other countries have been using safely for decades. The regulatory process that created the 25-year gap has been reformed, and bemotrizinol is the first product of that reform.

The rest of the world caught up to better sun protection technology a generation ago. American shelves are finally getting there this fall.

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