The following is an excerpt from a statement by the Center for Science in the Public Interest:
”As The Washington Post reported in 2003, Dr. Michael Miller has taken $25,000 from breast-implant maker Inamed to help produce an educational CD-ROM about breast reconstruction surgery. We are extremely disappointed that the FDA chose to overlook this conflict of interest. It's also distressing that the panel is so unbalanced by the inclusion of four plastic surgeons, who financially benefit from the use of these devices. As the chairman of the last committee wrote to FDA chairman Mark McClellan after that vote, "It just does not play well in Peoria."
The Federal Advisory Committee Act requires that committees be balanced with regards to points of view. With plastic surgeons constituting four of 12 voting members on this committee, their votes may once again determine the outcome of the vote. The imbalance is exacerbated by the fact that only one person on the committee is expert in the diseases that may result from ruptured silicon gel breast implants.”