PIP implants sold to Dutch firm under new name

Potentially dangerous breast implants made by a now-defunct French company were sold to about 1,000 Dutch women under a different name, a Dutch health official said on Monday, broadening a scandal that could already affect some 300,000 women worldwide.

Dutch health authority spokeswoman Diane Bouhuijs said a Dutch company had bought implants made by France's Poly Implant Prothese, which went bankrupt in 2010 after French health authorities shut its doors and is now under investigation, and sold them in the Netherlands rebranded as "M-implants."

"We estimate that some 1,000 women in the Netherlands have those implants. We have advised them to consult their physician," Bouhuijs said.

She declined to disclose the name of the Dutch company.

The rebranding of PIP implants potentially expands the scope of the health controversy in which PIP, once the third-largest maker of breast implants in the world, stands accused of using industrial-grade instead of medical-grade silicone in some of its protheses. They were sold in a number of European and Latin America countries.

The company's founder, Jean-Claude Mas, was able to charge lower prices for the implants using the non-approved silicone.

Health authorities have cited no evidence of increased cancer risk due to the PIP implants but have said they have higher rates of rupture that could cause inflammation and irritation.

While the French government has urged the 30,000 women in France with PIP implants to have them removed, other countries including Britain and Brazil say that women should visit their surgeons for checks.

Health spokeswoman Bouhuijs did not say how long M-implants were sold in the Netherlands before they were banned in March 2010, along with PIP-labeled implants, as in France.

In early 2010 Dutch authorities launched an investigation into breast implants which is still going on, Bouhuijs said.

France's drug and medical device regulator, AFSSAPS, was closed on Monday due to the holidays, so Reuters was unable to ascertain whether health authorities knew about the M-implants.