States Question Merck's License to Kill

"HPV-inoculation requirements a boon for Merck", The Washington Times
Here we go again! In June last year, in what was hailed by the pharmaceutical industry as a stunning victory given the meager 6-month review and approval process, the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, approved Gardisil, a vaccine developed by Merck & Co., for girls and women ages 9 to 26. The drug reportedly works by building immunity against sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, HPV, common among the sexually active, and was found to be effective in preventing almost three-quarters of all cervical cancers.
Early on, public health advocates supported universal availability of the HPV vaccine, but were disturbed by and adamantly opposed efforts to make HPV vaccination mandatory for entry to public school. Why? cancer data showed that pre-teen girls innoculated with Gardisil would be no older than 18 when they pass Gardasil's five-year window of proven effectiveness - more than a decade before the typical cancer patient contracts sexually transmitted HPV. In other words, the average cervical cancer patient would not be protected by Gardisil taken as a teen.

Yet Merck launched a massive lobbying campaign, abetted by the FDA, to convince State lawmakers to enact legislation making Gardisal HPV vaccinations for girls 11 to 13 a requirement for school attendance. Essentially, Merck seeks to force-vaccinate pre-teen girls with a powerful drug whose effectiveness expired at least 10 years before the recipients could possibly exhibit the disease sought to be controlled. This cannot be called anything but medical fraud! The transparence of Merck's attempt to bulge its bottom line by capitalizing on modern society's most vulnerable class cannot be overstated. Cervical cancer in adult women in the United States has decreased considerably - due to early detection methods such as pap smears, thus Merck stands little chance to reap anticipated profits from the sale of Gardisil to this group. Its only hope therefore is to prey on a class of persons to whom the sale of Gardisil would be more lucrative in the long run.

Just think of it: at $360.00 for a series of 3 shots of Gardisil, Merck would make a killing, at the expense of U.S. taxpayers and in abrogation of the rights of pre-teen girls and their parents to pursue and determine their medical destiny! Happily, State lawmakers, but not the FDA, are awakening from their slumber. The former are presently waging a vigorous opposition to Merck's predatory tactics. But the battle is not over; the States will be forced to combat the FDA's marked predilection to favor the rights of its corporate clients, in addition to the pharmaceutical industry's historical sway over the health choices of Americans.