MAURO BLEVE
R&D Division Lead, Laboratorios Maverick – Grupo Ubesol, Spain

Abstract

Since March 2020, hydroalcoholic hand sanitisers have taken a very important role in our daily life, as hand hygiene has become key for the prevention and the control of the spread of COVID-19. Consequently, the demand for this type of products was so high that rapidly ended up in a general shortage in the traditional distribution channels. Laboratorios Maverick, as many other cosmetic and perfume manufacturers, were called to support the global health emergency and quickly had to fast track and reconvert their production in order to deliver hand sanitisers. This article summarizes information on various aspects to be considered for the design, development, production and sale of this type of products.

The use of hand sanitisers has steadily increased over the last years and more recently, due to the recent COVID pandemic, there was an exponential increase in the use of hand sanitisers. Dispensers were placed at the entrance and in multiple locations of every store, office, bar and restaurant. Hand sanitisers are no longer only sold in pharmacies, that used to be the main distribution channel, but they are sold everywhere, including hardware stores and many companies gave them as gadgets to their customers.

Consequently, the variety and the offer of this type of products has been boosted after the European Commission published a decree on March 13, 2020, introducing exemptions from the European regulations on biocidal products for cosmetic and perfumery manufacturers, according to their production capabilities, for the duration of the global health emergency, in order to face a general shortage of hand sanitisers.

Cosmetic manufacturers started to quickly produce and distribute hydroalcoholic hand sanitisers to help guarantee rapid availability for all categories of operators in the front line in this global health emergency, mainl ...