Diana Zuckerman dz@center4research.org

Dear Friends,

This is a brief update on the status of silicone breast implants.

First, I wanted to let you know that we have added new personal stories from women with implants to our website:

http://www.breastimplantinfo.org/per_stories.html

We have added links to the entire transcript of the April 11-13 FDA advisory meeting, as well as the individual testimony from several key experts and also from women with implants. (We couldn't include all the great testimony that was given, so we tried to include some you might not see on other websites). On that same page, you can read the Congressional report on breast implants that I wrote in 1992 -- it is amazing how so many of the issues are the same today. You'll have to scroll down to find the different sections:

http://www.breastimplantinfo.org/what_know_3.html

We are continuing to let FDA officials know that they should make their decision about silicone gel breast implants based on the science -- in this case, the lack of long-term scientifically credible research on safety. Choice is good as long as you can choose a safe product. Unfortunately, that is not the case with silicone breast implants, based on the research provided so far.

I just came back from a trip to Canada, where the government health agency is going through a similar review of silicone gel breast implants. We can all agree that the FDA process is flawed, but at least we can see it -- in Canada, the government appointed an expert panel that met secretly to deliberate -- it was not until after a newspaper revealed the situation that Health Canada made the names of their expert panel public. When they did, there were 2 familiar names on their list of 8 experts -- 2 men who spoke on behalf of Inamed at the FDA meeting on April 12. Yes, that's right -- 2 men who are providing "independent" expertise to help Canada decide whether to approve silicone breast implants are also paid consultants to Inamed to help them get approval for the same products in the US.

At this point, the FDA has more than 2 months left to decide what to do. They can follow the advice of the advisory panel and approve Mentor silicone breast implants and reject Inamed's. That seems unlikely. They can approve both. They can reject both. Or they can do the opposite of what the advisory panel recommended: approve Inamed and reject Mentor.

If they follow the science, they will reject both. The companies are lobbying Congress and FDA, and those of us who care about this issue need to get our voices heard too. Several people who testified are writing and submitting op-ed articles.

I'll keep you posted!

Diana

Diana Zuckerman, Ph.D.
President
National Research Center for Women & Families
1901 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Suite 901
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 223-4000
www.center4research.org