Staying on message, while making the numbers sing a happy tune
Merck’s “One Less” Marketing team is like a well oiled machine. It stays on message no mater what. A key message Merck likes to repete when touting Gardasil is that the vaccine prevents the two strains of HPV that account for about 70 percent of cervical cancers. That’s not the same as saying Gardasil is proven to prevent 70 percent of cervical cancer cases, it just sounds like that in the commercial. Stand in front of the mirror, look sincerly concerned and say it fast…See what I mean, Gosh I’m almost convinced that Gardasil is proven to prevent 70 percent of cervical cancer case…Not!
In fact, clinical trials showed precancerous lesions showed up only 14 percent less often in vaccinated women than those given a placebo. That’s not a huge difference, although Merck has argued that was among women who already had HPV. Among uninfected women who were vaccinated, 46 percent fewer later developed precancerous lesions.
Not surprisingly, Merck is scrambling to narrow the gaps. The drug maker is asking the FDA to upgrade the Gardasil label to say the vaccine prevents an additional two strains of HPV – types 6 and 11 – that can lead to cervical cancer. Type 16 and 18 were already approved. If the FDA goes along, this would allow Merck to say Gardasil prevents 80 percent of the kind of HPV that can cause cervical cancer and up to 50 percent of low-grade cervical, vulvar and vaginal lesions.
Merck has previously indicated it planned to move in that direction, and in all likelyhood, its marketing will continue to use the statitistical–side-step school of data enhansment, without call attention to the low effectiveness against precancerous lesions. For health professionals, cutting through the Gardasil ‘Happy Talk’ will remain a challenge, since pap test remain the very best form of cervical cancer detection.
Source: Merck press release.
