› $4.85 Billion settlement in drug case
Merck and Co. announced yesterday that Dr. Julie Gerberding, the former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will head the pharmaceutical giant’s vaccine division. Dr. Gerberding served as the CDC director from 2002 to 2009, stepping down when President Barack Obama took office.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently rescinded its controversial and, some argued, discriminatory requirement that all girls and women ages 11 to 26 immigrating to the United States receive at least one injection of Gardasil, Merck’s human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which informs the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on vaccine use and policy, declined to advocate for Gardasil’s systematic and widespread use in boys and men. The human papilloma virus, or HPV, does not present the same risks of cancer in males as it does in females, but it can lead to the development genital warts.
