Merck Stops Gardasil Lobbying Campaign

Under pressure from parents and medical groups Merck has announced Tuesday that they will end their lobbying campaign on state legislatures to make their new HPV vaccine mandatory for young girls. Merck has been criticized for quietly funding the campaign, via a third party, to require 11- and 12-year-old girls get the three-dose vaccine in order to attend school.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal Merck's "aggressive lobbying campaign" was designed to boost sales of the new vaccine Gardasil. Merck stated that the lobbying had become a distraction from their goals of immunizing women because of the backlash among physicians, consumer advocates, parents and even legislators. The aggressive lobbying, however, provided sales in total of $235 million through the end of 2006, according to Merck.

Many opposed the vaccine becoming mandatory in schools, though 20 states have already been considering the vaccine, many for girls not yet in the sixth grade. Some of the opposition comes from those who feel that a vaccine against a sexually transmitted disease has no place in the public school system. Most mandatory vaccines are for preventing communicable diseases, however HPV is only spread through sexual contact. Some parents feel that making this vaccine mandatory infringes upon their parental rights. U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., introduced into Congress the Parental Right to Decide Protection Act that would "prohibits federal funds from being used to implement mandatory state human-papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programs."

"As an OB-GYN physician, I understand the importance of protecting Americans from sexually transmitted diseases, and I applaud the development of an HPV vaccine," Gingrey said. "But for states to mandate vaccination for young women is both unprecedented and unacceptable."