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Merck ends push for vaccine mandate

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 21, 2007

TRENTON, N.J. - Merck & Co., bowing to pressure from parents and medical groups, is immediately suspending its lobbying campaign to persuade state legislatures to mandate that adolescent girls get the company's new vaccine against cervical cancer as a requirement for school attendance.

The drugmaker, which announced the change Tuesday, had been criticized for quietly funding the campaign to require 11- and 12-year-old girls get the three-dose vaccine.

Some had objected because the vaccine protects against a sexually transmitted disease, human papilloma virus, which causes cervical cancer. Vaccines mandated for school attendance usually are for diseases easily spread through casual contact, such as measles and mumps.

"Our goal is about cervical cancer prevention and we want to reach as many females as possible with Gardasil," said Dr. Richard Haupt, Merck's medical director for vaccines. "We're concerned that our role in supporting school requirements is a distraction from that goal, and as such have suspended our lobbying efforts."

The company will continue providing information about the vaccine if requested by government officials, he said.

Merck launched Gardasil, the first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, in June. It protects against the two virus strains that cause 70 percent of cervical cancer and two strains that cause most genital warts.

Sales totaled $235-million through 2006, Merck reports.

Merck was channeling money for its state-mandate campaign through Women in Government, an advocacy group of female state legislators across the country. Conservative groups opposed the campaign, saying it would encourage premarital sex, and parents' groups said it interfered with their rights.

Even two of the prominent medical groups that supported broad use of the vaccine, the American Academy of Pediatricians and the American Academy of Family Practitioners, questioned Merck's timing, Haupt said Tuesday.

"They, along with some other folks in the public health community, believe there needs to be more time," he said, to ensure that government funding for the vaccine for uninsured girls is in place and that families and government officials have enough information about it.

Merck's change of heart was "a good move for the public," said Dr. Anne Francis, who chairs an American Academy of Pediatrics committee that advocates for insurer reimbursement on vaccines. "I believe that their timing was a little bit premature ... before we have a picture of whether there are going to be any untoward side effects."

The National Vaccine Information Center, a group of parents worried that vaccines harm some children, has been publicizing reports of side effects - mostly dizziness and fainting - in several dozen people getting Gardasil, which is approved for use in females ages 9 to 26.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, say that reports of side effects through the end of January don't raise red flags.

Fast Facts:

State action

Legislatures in roughly 20 states have introduced measures mandating that girls have the vaccine to attend school, but none has passed.

In Texas: Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order on Feb. 2 requiring Texas girls entering the sixth grade as of 2008 to get the vaccinations, triggering protests from lawmakers. Parents could opt out if they state religious or philosophical objections.

In Florida: State Sen. Mike Fasano, who had proposed requiring girls get the vaccine, said Monday he would delay the requirement a year to satisfy safety concerns.

[Last modified February 21, 2007, 00:50:50]