[SecretsNowRevealed] lobbying for vaccines to be halted

[Guest guest]

At 02:30 AM 2/22/07, you wrote:

>Merck agrees to stop lobbying for HPV vaccine.

>Posted by: " Jagannath Chatterjee " jagchat01 jagchat01

>Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:50 pm (PST)

>

>February 21, 2007

>

>Lobbying for Vaccine to Be Halted

>

>By ANDREW POLLACK and STEPHANIE SAUL

>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/business/21merck.html?th & emc=th

>

>Reacting to a furor from some parents, advocacy groups and public health

>experts, Merck said yesterday that it would stop lobbying state

>legislatures to require the use of its new cervical cancer vaccine.

>

>The company said it made the decision after realizing that its

>lobbying campaign had fueled objections across the country that could

>undermine adoption of the vaccine.

>

>At least 20 states are considering making its use mandatory for

>schoolgirls, and the governor of Texas, Rick Perry,

>has already done so by executive order. Part of the states' rush to

>embrace the vaccine has been instigated by Merck efforts that began

>before federal regulators approved the product last year.

>

>The vaccine is aimed at a sexually transmitted virus that causes

>cervical cancer. Critics of the vaccine on moral and other grounds have

>used Merck's perceived influence as a weapon in fighting the drug's

>use. And some public health officials who favor the vaccine say the

>movement to make it mandatory has come too fast.

>

>Merck acknowledged that opinion yesterday, saying it would stop

>lobbying specifically for state mandates, many of which would require

>girls to be vaccinated before they entered sixth grade.

>

>But Dr. Haupt said that Merck would continue to provide health

>officials and legislators with education about the vaccine and would

>continue to lobby for more financing for vaccines in general.

>

>He declined to say how much money or staff resources Merck had

>expended in its efforts to require use of the cervical cancer vaccine.

>

>The vaccine, which costs about $400 for the three-shot regimen, was

>approved by the Food and Drug Administration

>in June. Later that month, a federal advisory panel recommended that

>females 11 to 26 years old be vaccinated, although panelists have said

>that recommendation was not equivalent to recommending mandatory

>inoculation.

>

>But the speed with which legislatures have moved to require use of

>the vaccine before school entry has galvanized critics. Some say making

>a vaccine mandatory would pre-empt parental choice; others contend that

>protection from a sexually transmitted virus would encourage

>promiscuity.

>

>These people were joined by some worried about the influence of

>pharmaceutical companies. Merck has been a financial backer of Women in

>Government, a national organization of legislators whose members have

>sponsored some of the state laws to make the vaccine mandatory.

 

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