Company stands to gain if clinical trial results indicate implants are safe.

2003 NOV 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Driven into bankruptcy by billions of dollars in silicone breast-implant health claims, Dow Corning Corp. says it might benefit if the government lets another company start selling them.

Eleven years after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned most use of the implants, the agency is considering letting them back on the U.S. market.

On October 14, 2003, an FDA advisory panel opened a hearing to review the results of clinical trials conducted by Inamed Corp. of Santa Barbara, California. Executives say the trials prove that the company's implants are safe and the government should lift its sharp restrictions on their sale.

Should the FDA allow reintroduction of the implants, a Dow Corning spokesman says it would become difficult for people to win lawsuits over them, said Dow Corning spokesman Kevin Wiggins.

Dow Corning is a joint venture of Midland, Michigan-based Dow Chemical and Corning, New York-based Corning Inc. It sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1995 after thousands of women filed claims that the implants damaged their health. Dow Corning consistently maintained the implants were safe but stopped making them in 1992. It agreed to pay $3.2 billion toward the claims as part of its $4.5 billion bankruptcy settlement. Under the plan, Dow Corning set aside $400 million to manage claims for people who chose to sue instead of settle.

"If the device is brought back on the market and FDA changes [its] position, I would think it would be very ...