Merck Tables Efforts to make cancer vaccine mandatory

Merck Tables Effort To Push Mandatory Vaccine For Girls
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By LINDA A. JOHNSON The Associated Press

Published: Feb 21, 2007

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TRENTON, N.J. - Merck & Co. 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 company said Tuesday.

The drug maker had been criticized by parents and doctors' groups for quietly funding the campaign via a third party to require 11- and 12-year-old girls to get the three-dose vaccine in order to attend school.

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.

"Our goal is about cervical cancer prevention, and we want to reach as many females as possible with Gardasil," Richard M. Haupt, Merck's medical director for vaccines, told The Associated Press.

"We're concerned that our role in supporting school requirements is a distraction from that goal, and as such have suspended our lobbying efforts," Haupt said, adding the company will continue providing information about the vaccine if requested by government officials.

Merck launched Gardasil, the first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, in June.

Sales totaled $255 million through the end of 2006, according to Merck.

Last month, the Associated Press reported that 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' rights groups said it interfered with their control over their children.

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 government funding for the vaccine for uninsured girls is in place and that families and government officials have enough information about it.

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