SEC Asked to Probe Mentor

The chairman of the House Commerce Committee said Tuesday he has asked federal securities regulators to check a Santa Barbara-based breast implant maker’s denials about a Food and Drug Administration investigation of the company.

Rep. Thomas J. Bliley (R-Va.), who chairs the House panel that oversees the FDA, asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Mentor Corp. misled investors last month in a statement denying there was a criminal investigation into possible irregularities in a study of breast implants.

On March 23, Mentor issued a statement saying it had contacted the FDA and that the agency denied that Mentor was part of its probe of the implant study.

Instead, Mentor said, the FDA was investigating 1998 “manufacturing issues.”

Bliley said he asked the FDA about Mentor’s claims. The agency “stands by its statement that described the criminal investigation as relating to ‘allegations of serious irregularities in breast implant studies,’ ” he said.

Mentor general counsel Douglas Altschuler said Tuesday the company stands by its statements. “I don’t know, couldn’t begin to guess,” he said about the discrepancy.

Mentor made its original statement in response to a March 23 USA Today article on the probe of study irregularities that sent its stock tumbling. After the Mentor statement, its stock price rebounded.

On Tuesday, Mentor stock fell 81 cents to close at $26.81 on Nasdaq.

Bliley wrote SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt to determine whether federal securities laws were violated since Mentor’s public statement affected trading of its stock and the information was in conflict with the FDA.