Delsie joined the Focal Point Research team in 2011 and has been an invaluable asset for our clients. With her strong regulatory and quality assurance background, she is able to help clients understand the Canadian and US requirements, set targets to achieve compliance, and attain their goals to get products to market.
Delsie is able to audit facilities, set up and maintain GMP compliant facilities, develop strong quality management systems, and co-ordinate successful Health Canada inspections. In addition to this, Delsie oversees all regulatory compliance reviews and submissions made to Health Canada and the US FDA.
Delsie obtained an Honours Bachelor of Science (Hons. B. Sc.) in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Toronto, Post-Graduate Certificate in Pharmaceutical Regulatory Affairs and Quality Operations (RAQ) from Seneca College and Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC) from the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS).
When she’s not learning something new, Delsie loves spending time with family, going on road trips or long walks, and swimming.
Jennifer Porter, BA Psychology, MBA – President & CEO
Having started at Focal Point Research in 2011, Jenn has been fully engaged in the company and since day one, has leveraged her MBA and interest in the regulated products industries to grow her passion for the business and services offered.
Jenn has excelled at building on initial conversations with a variety of companies from all industries seeking regulatory and quality assurance services. She has developed strong relationships with each client, offering each one a unique opportunity to have the Focal Point Research team help them develop successful strategies and bring products to market, while ensuring their compliance needs are being fulfilled.
Jenn has not only been a leader internally, but a key contact for all clients and in 2021, Jenn was the obvious choice to lead Focal Point Research into the future as the successor to company founder, Rob Fichtner.
Jennifer balances her career by honouring her wanderlust, spending her leisure time golfing, and enjoying the outdoors with her loving dog.
Animal testing is, quite possibly, one of the most controversial and widely debated ethical issues in the cosmetic, personal care and healthcare industries. It is an issue that has gained an immense amount of traction in recent years, and rightly so, with numerous countries having either banned the practice of animal testing on cosmetics or are in the process of passing legislation to do so.
In Canada, Bill S-214, also known as the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act, was introduced in 2015 with a purpose to “amend the Food and Drugs Act to prohibit cosmetic animal testing and the sale of cosmetic products developed or manufactured using animal testing”. The bill passed through the senate and proceeded to be put forward to the House of Commons, where it was debated at a second reading on June 3, 2019. The Canadian government adjourned for the general election shortly after this, putting the bill on hold. The Cosmetics Alliance of Canada, who worked extensively with various stakeholders on the bill to “develop amendments that address these issues and align the legislation with the E.U. within the Canadian regulatory context and structure”, released a statement asserting they are “supportive of affirming in legislation what is today, in fact, the reality – that the use of animal testing with respect to cosmetic products is virtually non-existent in Canada. However, it is critical that any bill does not stifle future innovation or prevent the use of important new ingredients (e.g. preservatives, sunscreens) in cases where non-animal alternative test methods do not yet exist.”
The United States is moving in a similar direction, with California, Nevada and Illinois already having implemented state-wide legislation that bans the sale of cosmetics tested on animals and the Safe Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Act of 2019 fighting for the phasing out of animal testing in cosmetics on a federal level.
With the cosmetic industry very evidently moving in the direction of implementing animal testing bans on a virtually global scale, it is important to note that a wide variety of modern alternative methods are available for majority of cosmetic safety issues, many of which have proven to exhibit an equal or greater effectiveness in predicting human responses in comparison to the animal tests they replace. Cruelty Free International, an animal protection and advocacy group that works to end animal experiments worldwide, provided several examples of alternative methods to animal testing, including conducting tests on human and animal cell cultures or healthy and diseased tissues donated from human volunteers, computer models that replicate aspects of the human body, conducting research with human volunteers, and human-patient simulators. More information on alternatives to animal testing from Cruelty Free International can be found here.
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