Merck agrees to stop lobbying for HPV vaccine.

February 21, 2007

February 21, 2007

Lobbying for Vaccine to Be Halted

By ANDREW POLLACK and STEPHANIE SAULhttp://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