Implant Flacks

On November 17 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved silicone breast implants manufactured by Mentor Corporation and Allergan. PR Week reports that the PR firm MS&L "began working with Inamed Corp. in the lead-up to the April 2005 FDA hearing on their product and continued to work on the effort following Allergan's acquisition of Inamed last March." Ame Wadler, the chief strategist and chairman of global healthcare for the PR firm Burson-Marsteller (B-M), said that the firm had been representing Mentor for about two years. In the mid-1990's BM engineered Dow Corning's PR strategy in an attempt to bounce back from major lawsuits over the health impacts from implants.