Good News

Drug company ends push to make vaccine mandatory

Facing adverse reaction from parents, doctors and advocacy groups, Merck and Co. said Tuesday that it would stop lobbying state governments for laws mandating that pre-teen girls be vaccinated against cervical cancer. The Wall Street Journal reports that Merck, which makes the vaccine Gardasil to protect against the human papillomavirus (HPV), had initially been successful in convincing such state leaders as Texas governor Rick Perry to order the vaccinations. But Gardasil is expensive, the Journal reports — $360 for a three-dose regimen — and HPV, believed to cause
most of the cases of cervical cancer in the United States, is spread through
sexual contact. Many parent and advocacy groups had objected to the vaccine,
because it might have forced them into talking about subjects they weren't ready
to discuss with their daughters. And because the vaccine's approval is new, some
physicians expressed concern about possible side effects. The Journal quotes
Merck's executive director of medical affairs, Richard Haupt, as saying the
company had decided that the adverse reaction was a distraction from the
original goal of immunizing as many women as possible. Merck has "decided at
this point not to lobby for school laws any further," the newspaper quotes Haupt
as saying.

-- HealthDay News

h/t Becky