Merck will market Gardasil in China through partnership with Sinopharm
July 27th, 2010 by Wendi Lewis
The Associated Press reported today that U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co., which manufactures the controversial HPV vaccine Gardasil, among other drugs, has entered into a partnership with China-based pharmaceutical company Sinopharm to market vaccines and other products. According to the report, the joint venture will focus primarily on expanding Merck’s product reach to China’s population of more than 1 billion people.
In addition to Gardasil, which is marketed to prevent cervical cancer by targeting four types of human papillomavirus (HPV), Sinopharm will help distribute other Merck products including Januvia, for the treatment of diabetes, Cozaar and Hyzaar (heart drugs), Remicade (rheumatoid arthritis) and Singulair and Nasonex (allergy treatments).
According to a Merck news release dated July 27, 2010, the two companies have signed a statement of mutual intent. “Under the statement, Sinopharm and Merck will cooperate on HPV vaccine and other mutually selected vaccine products in China, and will also discuss the potential for promoting and marketing Merck’s pharmaceutical products in China,” the release reads.
The release describes Sinopharm as China’s largest pharmaceutical and health industrial group under State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council. It has China’s largest bio-pharmaceutical manufacturing company and China’s largest (the world’s third largest) pharmaceutical distribution company.
Nearly 30 million doses of the Gardasil vaccine have been distributed in the U.S. since 2006, and Merck generates about $1 billion in revenues from the drug annually. It is marketed as a preventive treatment for cervical cancer, protecting against four of 40 strains of HPV. Recently, the drug also was approved for use in boys, to protect against the transmission of HPV and genital warts, which the company says could lead to penile and anal cancers.
However, the drug has come under fire from critics following a series of adverse events in girls who received the vaccine. These include serious side effects like blood clots and muscle weakness. There also have been reports of 53 deaths in girls and women who received Gardasil.
Perhaps most startling, recently one of Gardasil’s own primary researchers, Dr. Diane Harper, said she believes the drug is unnecessary at best, and dangerous at worst. She points out that 90 percent of HPV infections resolve themselves, and that annual Pap tests beginning at age 21 for women are effective at catching and treating precancerous lesions before cervical cancer develops.