Monday, November 13, 2006

Slow news day: Ivivi - Allerghan deal & the election's effect on silicone breast implants

It's been a little slow on things interesting me to write about.

Two things off the wire:

1) Good news: Ivivi Technologies has announced a world-wide distribution agreement with Allergan for its devices which should really allow this pulsed magnetic field device company to establish a presence in post-op management of pain & swelling. Allergan is the parent company which owns Inamed (the breast implant & Lap-band manufacturer), BOTOX, some of the new injectable fillers.

2) Bad News: My small Ivivi stock purchase is now slightly underwater from it's purchase price of $6/share! So much for my savvy investing skills. I do have faith that this will rebound as Ivivi becomes wider distributed. How the market valuates things like this escape me.

My prediction that the election results last week will be seized upon to affect the debate on silicone implants seems to be showing signs of coming true. A PR release from N.O.W. issued today specifically mentions this in the context of the new agenda N.O.W. expects to be advanced:
"Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) has introduced the FDA Scientific Fairness Act for Women, which would halt the Food and Drug Administration's approval process on silicone breast implants until the agency can actually establish the life of silicone breast implants and until implant makers can prove the safety of the product"


As has been elaborated here on Plastic Surgery 101 before, this is complete rubbish and reflects a rope-a-dope strategy by the anti-implant crusaders to stall this indefinately. We have a fair number of well-followed patients at a decade+ to estimate failure rates of 4th generation silicone implants (~5-8% rupture rate at a decade) and the forthcoming 5th generation implants (the Inamed 410 "gummy bear") has a recently reported rupture rate of nearly zero (0.3% at 6 years). Safety has also been established for years to everyone's satisfaction (both here and abroad) except the fringe cadre of activists who refuses to accept the published work on the subject.


tags:




No comments: