› $4.85 Billion settlement in drug case
On first glance, a study published by drug manufacturer Merck & Co., in the New England Journal of Medicine appears to declare the Gardasil vaccine a resounding success. The pharmaceutical giant points to numbers that show its cervical cancer vaccine has an unbelievable 98 percent efficacy rate. On closer examination, however, perhaps unbelievable is the right word.
Government health agencies in France and the United Kingdom are cracking down on the manufacturers of HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix, saying the companies are falsely advertising their products. According to a report in the American Chronicle, vaccine watchdog organization SANE VAX has been following the investigation of problems with the advertisements, which have resulted in the ads being banned in France and removed in the UK and India.
Washington Examiner opinion editor Barbara Hollingsworth raises an interesting question about Merck’s cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil: If 52 deaths linked to sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles prompted massive, multi-billion-dollar recalls, then why is Gardasil still administered to thousands of school-age girls when it has been linked to 49 deaths in a briefer time span?
Women considering receiving the Gardasil vaccine for themselves or their daughters may encounter a lot of confusing, sometimes contradictory information and sweeping generalizations. Because January is Cervical Cancer Awareness month, more women and girls may be seeking information about human papillomavirus (HPV), Gardasil, and the more recently approved vaccine Cervarix, which makes it even more important that truth about the vaccine be known.
