Expansion is the theme here. The health care giant is snapping up Mentor, which sells silicone-filled breast implants (see the site) as it moves into the market for cosmetic and reconstructive medicines, even as the lousy economy raises questions about consumer willingness to pay for such things (J&J statement).

Mentor’s key competitor in the breast implant market is Allergan, and the company hopes to grab share in the wrinkle business as well by developing an anti-wrinkle injection called PurTox to compete with Allergan’s Botox. The deal is the second recent buyout for J&J, which last week agreed to buy Omrix Biopharmaceuticals for $438 million to expand its line of products used to control bleeding during surgery.

Mentor, which has about 1,300 employees, posted $373 million in sales in its most recent fiscal year. At $31 per share, J&J’s tender offer for Mentor is a 92 percent premium to Mentor’s closing price on Friday, although the shares had traded above $40 at the start of 2008. “It fits well with the consumer segment and in the direction J&J often said it wants to go, which is to combine consumer products with prescription products,” Stanford Group analyst Jan Wald tells Reuters.